Christmas Vacation, part 1

Christmas in Japan is not a big deal. At least, not in terms of tradition, family or culture. It mostly exists in the Japanese imagination as a lot of beautiful colors and lights, people dressed as Santa, and a generally festive way to decorate during the winter. To give you an idea of just how unimportant Christmas is:
1) If Christmas had been on a week day, I would have had to work on Christmas.
2) The middle school teachers' End-of-Year Drinking Party was scheduled on Christmas.

The big holiday around here is New Year's. It is customary to clean one's house for the New Year. Not a spot of dirt from the old year should be allowed to follow you into the next. To ensure this is the case, parents and in-laws come to visit the house, some of them with the intent to inspect the cleaning job. This can lead to some interesting relationships between in-laws, as I learned during the break.

School let out on December 24th. My vacation days are from Dec. 29th to Jan. 3rd. My original hope, several months ago, was to travel out of the country, go somewhere warm and exotic, see more of this part of the world. But the girl I had asked to travel with turned out to be a lousy travel partner, and plans fell through toward the end. Not wanting to travel abroad alone while having to spend more money for booking things later, I turned to a friend who would be traveling around Kyushu. Would it be alright for me to join her? Sure, she said. So this is what we have done so far:

So Krista and Kyle are both first-year JETs like me. They went to college together, but Kyle works further north, just below Hokkaido in Aomori. Krista is about 2ish hours south of me. They spent Christmas with Kyle's in-laws in Fukuoka, then passed through Nishihara to get me on their way to Takachiho, where we spent the next 3 days.

Takachiho is a small town in the mountains, whose main claims to fame are it's gorge, it's temple, and the Amano Iwato Shrine. While we were there, we stayed with Victoria, an English teacher who is an ex-JET from the UK, living in Takachiho with her Japanese husband and three beautiful children, aged 8, 11, and 14, none of whom could really speak English. The middle child was tall for his age and rather willing to offer up perhaps the only 3 phrases he knew in English: "Shut up!" "Don't touch me!" and "Fuck you, honestly!" He was a little punk, and we were all vastly amused.

Victoria was an amazing hostess. She quite literally opened her house up to us, so we got to spend some time with her family, and even cooked dinner for them one night. We watched Japanese dramas on her kitchen TV, and saw the video recording or her Halloween spent as Lady Gaga. We taught the family how to play ERS and Sahara, the 8 year old daughter, even started learning how to shuffle cards. We raked leaves and rang the Buddhist temple bell at 6 pm sharp. Oh, did I forget to mention? Victoria is a Buddhist priest, has been for 10 years. Her husband is as well, since he is the oldest son in a family that has run this particular temple for the past 400 years.

The layout of Victoria's place: The temple, bell platform, and main house make a sort of courtyard. Further down the driveway, there was a combination garage-shed, and after that an event hall, that housed old furniture, a ping pong table, a small kitchen and shower and bathroom, and a small guest bedroom. And LOTS of bedding. I was amazed - she had out 3 futons (as the Japanese think of them - they were floor mattresses, not sofas) for us, and 2-3 blankets a piece plus a heavy blanket cover and pillows and pillow cases. It was freezing in the building, but there was a kerosene heater, which served us quite well (until we ran out of kerosene the second night, but we got more the next day). We were free to come and go as we please, drive our car into town, check out the gorge, hike a trail in the cold cold air, take photos. We visited the onsen (Japanese spa) every day we were there to warm ourselves, and it also proved to be the most convenient way for all of us to shower. And everyday Victoria would regale us with nightmare stories about her relationship with her in-laws, two of which lived in the downstairs portion of the house, dubbed by Victoria as Enemy Territory. Turns out tons of family comes to visit for New Year's, but this is the loneliest time for Victoria, who finds that she has no place in the family at this time, and so spends it alone upstairs, while the rest of the family celebrates down below. In the meantime, she hosts Couch Surfers, or spends the New Year with the ALT who lives nearby. Everyone spends this time a little differently, I suppose.

These last two days were spent in Nishihara and Aso, so at my house. The next two days (including New Year's!) will be spent in Fukuoka, shopping, eating, and drinking. So far it's been rather an enjoyable vacation, with some unexpected adventures. It's snowed on and off since my travels began, and hopefully the snow won't prevent our traveling tomorrow. We'll see. The next update will be around the corner. There's still so much to tell!

Some Things Never Change

Like me losing things, particularly umbrellas. In Japan, most buildings have an umbrella rack near the entryway, since it rains a lot. Also, people don't often use compact umbrellas, but the long ones. Anyway, when I leave my umbrella at the entryway, I forget it on the way out. This has happened twice. I currently have no umbrellas in my house. I have found ￥100 (about $1.08) umbrellas, though. I'm strongly considering buying about 10 of them.

And in yet another unsurprising turn of events, I have developed a minor skin problem. In the summer, I had a particularly itchy spot in the bend of my left elbow. I thought it was the heat, so I waited out the summer. Now that it's cooled down, the itching has gone away, leaving a mysterious white patch of skin. Time to visit the doctor. Oh boy.

So I asked Tomoko about setting up an appointment, hoping she might find time to come with me. I mean really, visiting a doctor who doesn't speak your language? Not something I wanted to do without a translator. But Tomoko was very busy, so she printed out a map for me, told me the name of the doctor and hospital, called them to let them know a foreigner was coming, and then I went by myself.

Let me just say that the whole process was surprisingly simple. I had a spot of trouble finding the place, since my kanji-recognition reflexes are still painfully slow, but when I walked into the wrong building, the lady there was nice enough to walk with me down the street to show me where to go. In the hospital, I went to the front desk, handed them my insurance card, and sat in the waiting room. After about 25 minutes, I was called into the dermatologist. They took a sample, looked at in under a microscope, called me in again and told me I had a melanin disfunction. Basically, pigment problems. Then they said they could start treating it that day. They're basically giving me 10 seconds of UV radiation on the patch of skin once a week and I have this cream I put on at night. The total cost and hassle of all this? About 2 hours the first day, 1 hour a week after that including driving time (I'm not sure how many weeks this will go...) and the initial visit cost me about $15, the cream cost $7, and each visit after that costs about $7. The process has been INCREDIBLY easy!! I don't have to make an appointment. I just walk in, hand the receptionist my patient card and wait about 15 minutes to be called in. I see the doctor, then I  pay my bill, then I leave. It's so easy! Now I just have to wait and hope that the treatments work. The spot is still there, but I can't tell if it's going back to normal. At any rate, it's cold here and I'm always wearing long sleeves, so I can't even see it 95% of the time.

Yep, some things never change. Even on the other side of the world, I still lose my umbrellas and I have minor, mysterious reasons to visit the doctor. I hope Zuma stays healthy and well. I haven't taken him to a vet yet, so who knows, there may well be something wrong with him that I can't see. People were asking me about him the other day, and it occurred to me how strange it was that he was lost. I mean, who loses a chihuahua or doesn't claim it? I saw one just like Zuma in a pet shop along with other small purebreds, and they cost from $600-1000!! I mean, you don't just lose a $1000 dog. Well, however it happened, I'm glad I have him now. It's so nice having a pet when you live by yourself, and Zuma's just the right size and I just happen to have a house with a yard, so keeping a dog is not much of a problem. And everybody loves Zuma and Zuma seems to love everyone, especially toddlers, who are much closer to his size. The way one friend put it, Someone was watching out for me, for this barking little lump of happiness to have shown up right when I got here. Thanks, Someone!

Strange

I discovered today that students at my middle school are not allowed to wear deodorant (with a few exceptions, I'm sure).

HOW WEIRD IS THAT!! When I was in middle school, if you didn't wear deodorant, you got made fun of. Everyone noticed. And even stranger still: the students do not smell bad. Not noticeably, anyway, and not as a whole. This only further verifies my theory that Japanese people do not sweat. Heaven help me if my current deodorant supply runs out, because they surely do not have advanced odor protection here.

On a side note, here are a couple of gems I came across when I was grading papers.
1) "Feastball" instead of "Festival"
2) "I must cream my room."

I'm sure there were more, but I lost the post-it note I wrote them down on.

Stoves, heaters and ovens...notice a theme?

You know what I miss? Full-sized ovens that help heat the house when you use them. My little microwave oven is just not the same. I made cookies today, so I can spread a little Christmas joy to those around me, but my hands froze between cookie batches, and I forgot that I had toes because they lost all feeling! I didn't turn on much heat because I thought the cooking and baking might help, but nope.

So yea, the house is quite cold now that the weather has turned genuinely cold. There were snowflakes in the air today, but nothing that stuck. And unfortunately the house is so poorly insulated that once a room is nicely heated (my kerosene heater will take a room from freezing to comfortable in about 8 minutes), you have to keep the heat on to maintain the temperature. I turned it off once - and about 10 minutes later I could see my breath.

AHHH! I just realized that even when closed, this closet right next to me lets in a significant draft of cold air. The closet ceiling opens right up to the top of the house, where there must be an open window or something because cold air comes rushing out of the closets when I open them.

By the way - in Japan, "stobu" refers to the kerosene heater. I think "reinji" is one of the words for what we call a stove/range. And the air conditioner functions as a heater, but in this cold, it's a joke really. I think it blows lukewarm air at best, whereas I can see the fire inside the kerosene heater. Well, here's to hoping I survive the winter.

Magic Tape and a 12 Year Old who can beat me up!

I picked up kendo a few weeks ago. It's finally starting to feel a little more normal, the shinai (bamboo sword) doesn't feel quite so unwieldy anymore. I'm getting lots of hand-me-downs. One teacher gave me her old shinai, and another even found an extra set of kendo robes. The pants were too long, but one mom took them, measured me, and in an hour brought them back hemmed! Another teacher showed me how to fold the carefully pleated pants. And yet another mom is learning kendo herself right along with me!

This week marks the return of the star of the elementary school team, Takashi. He's an athletic 6th grade boy who was out for a few weeks due to an injury. Since he's still recovering, he doesn't participate in practice with the other students, but comes to help out, either by hitting the drum that signals time intervals, or coaching the newest students - Masami and me. And this kid is tough! He had us doing sets of 30 strokes with the shinai, until we had done well over 100. My muscles were aching the day after that! But this kid can do 400, no sweat. He also apparently does 100 sit-ups every day, too. Sheesh!

But Takashi makes a great teacher. He was really quiet the first few weeks I knew him - I barely ever saw him smile, he looked so serious. But he smiles all the time now that he's teaching us. My constant reprimand is "Nobasu!", which means "Arms straight!". He's very strict, doesn't let anything slide, and his approval is something I work hard to earn.

My new favorite Japanese word is "Magic Tape". Literally, "majiku tepu" is what they call velcro. It's rather an apt description, if you ask me. I mean, if I had to explain to someone who had never seen it what velcro was, "magic tape" is as close an approximation as I could come to the concept. But I still laughed so hard when I heard that. It's just such a beautiful translation. Makes more sense in Japanese than in English.

Also, I'm not sure if it's a joke or not, but I was told that a pigeon pooping on your head is good luck. This is because "un" means good luck, while "unko" means poop. So if you happen to get some poop, it comes with good luck. Or something. But I think someone overlooked the whole getting-pooped-on part of this scenario. Oh, Japan!

The 20 km Physical Fitness Test

Yep, that's right. Middle school students have to walk 20 km. Well, girls only have to do 17 km.  Running is optional, but encouraged and the students with the top times are awarded certificates. For a couple of weeks, I heard this even referred to as Running Day, or Hiking Day. This led me to think it would be a very leisurely walk through Nishihara.

Well, as you can imagine, I ended up working a lot harder than I expected. Each teacher had a task, like manning a checkpoint or drinking station, and mine was to be one of the teachers walking with the students.  Alright. Well, I ended up being one of the teachers running with the students, and I managed the first 5 km before taking it to a walk. I brought my camera along and took pictures of the students I saw along the way.

But this was more than just a timed walk/run physical fitness test in beautiful, brisk weather. This was an adventure! It almost felt like the Milo and Otis movie, where a puppy and a kitten get lost and have adventures in the rivers and forests they come across. Along the walk, I passed waterfalls, babbling brooks, corn fields and cow farms. I even put my hand out and got licked by one such cow.

At the checkpoints, some younger students waited with their parents to help point the way. One group of young girls followed me a ways down the road, and we played an approximation of red light/green light for about 1 km. I passed students who were designated trash picker-uppers. I had a full blown conversation (90% Japanese) with a group of boys who are usually very quiet in class. The sun was shining the whole morning (in what seemed to be a miraculous 6 hour interval amidst 3 days of nonstop cold rain) and it was a wonderful day, though my legs and especially my toes would say otherwise - ouch! But this was my first such long trek, and I had motivation to try to keep running - mostly to try to catch the next group of students to talk a bit with them.

After that, I took a nice long shower and soak. A while later, I believe I discovered the first child here whom I rather dislike. This girl, named Sunflower, is about 8 years old and behaves as though she owns the world. She doesn't ask permission before she does anything. This included entering my house, getting Zuma's leash and taking him for a walk, and various other things. She is the leader of her group of friends, but she rarely succumbs to the wishes of her followers. She even kicked one of the kids, for who knows what reason, sending the 5 year old boy into a rant of tears as he tried to run away. We spent a good 10 minutes following him. In her mother's greenhouse, she didn't hesitate to pick up a scalpel to cut a few leaves. That rather alarmed me, since there were other kids around, and this girl seems to have little conscience or sense of consequence for her actions. So I told her to put it down, as best I could. She understood me, but it took her awhile to set it down. After which she picked up a much bigger knife, and began using it to cut up a twig, in that mildly-shamed-but-still-defiant way that kids have. Then I told her in No Nonsense English to put the knife down. This time she got the message. Yep, the first kid I decided I don't like. She's just not a very nice 8 year old. At all. Not a very nice thing to say, but well, every day has its ups and its downs.

Hisashiburashi

That means "long time no see". And so it has been, but not because I haven't had things to write about. I actually have half of my trip to Korea written in a draft.

So since I last wrote, I've adjusted considerably to life in Japan. In fact, the week before I left to Korea, for the first time I felt that I was in a natural rhythm, that things were going well because I planned them that way, and not because of some freak accident or bit of luck. Students look familiar, and they seem more used to me. I know my teachers better, and so can adjust to working with them a little better. Now I'm actually in the middle of coordinating a Christmas origami display where I teach each of the elementary school grades a different model, then put them all together to make a Christmas mural, complete with trees, santas, reindeers, and wreaths with bows and bells.

And I started taking kendo lessons. That's one thing I definitely did not expect I would do when I first got here, but I've spent so much time with the kendo kids and moms, that the teachers invited me to learn. And now it's something I look forward to on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, when I'm not lesson-planning at the last minute.

So I've settled in, perhaps a little too much, since I now get lazy with things, such as this blog. It's pretty easy to just turn on the computer, watch a couple of episodes of a show while I eat dinner, then go to sleep. Between kendo and short walks with Zuma, I know I'm at least getting my minimal exercise. And I still cook, if with little creativity, fairly regularly, and it's usually healthy food. Every now and then there's a party or a weekend event. Last weekend was the grand opening of the library and community center across the street. And this is the season of the Year End Parties, so a few are coming up.

So it goes.