KBF Japan

Last Week I Went to China. No, Really!

2010-02-24T21:30:00.001+09:00

Whew! So after a whirlwind tour of Beijing with my lovely friends Sarah and Kristina, I finally have found the energy to return here and update again! So last week, I went to Beijing. It was quite possibly the most insane trip humanly possible; I'm not sure if that was Beijing or just us. Our trip began with Sarah and Kristina almost missing their flight because someone had committed suicide by jumping in front of Sarah's train and so it was late. (Sidenote: if a train is ever late in Japan, somebody probably used it to kill themselves. Because otherwise Japanese people are never late, and that goes for planes trains and buses, too.) In the meantime, I ended up spending the night sleeping under police supervision at the Haneda Airport koban (police box - yes Japanese policemen are just so badass that they work in a box. And also the emblem for it is a cop giving a kid a lollipop. Hardcore man.). As it turns out one cannot camp out overnight in Japanese airports, as they close. I was informed of this at midnight, after all the trains had stopped running, by a surly Japanese man in a uniform who stood about shoulder high to me. After much groveling, pleading and ninety degree bowing, I and the two other stranded foreigners who had glommed onto me because they spoke no Japanese, we were permitted to camp out on benches at the koban. They took down our passport numbers so that we can't ever do it again though. The next day I finally arrived in Beijing and to the hostel, where I met up with Sarah and Kristina. We decided to ride bikes over to the Forbidden City.

This was a horrible idea. Beijing traffic is what the ninth circle of Hell must be like, and helmets have yet to be invented in China. It is like a nightmarish game of Frogger, if Frogger had a love child with Grand Theft Auto. To make things worse, it was way below freezing! We got lost for several hours, and spent them being chased down by buses, cop cars and taxis, bouncing from Beijinger to Beijinger trying to get directions - which we did get, in both English and Chinese, and all of which were horribly wrong. We eventually arrived, but it had already closed. We went and wandered in Dongshan Park instead. Sarah had to give me handwarmers because I was so cold! Eventually we found our way to Starbucks, and warmed up before returning to the hostel.

That night we went out for hot pot with some new friends from our hostel, and those same friends talked me into going out with them that night. It turned into a ridiculous late night of drinks and dancing. I made it back just in time to grab a few winks before we departed for the Great Wall! One of the perks of visiting Beijing in February (which translates roughly to "visiting Beijing in the dead of winter") is that nobody else is crazy enough to do it, so you have major attractions like the Great Wall entirely to yourself!

After the Great Wall, we went back into town and wandered, ate some snacks at a local restaurant, and rested up for the Peking Opera that night!

I filmed this guy. He caught me. And winked.

After the opera, we went out for Peking duck with two of our new hostel buddies. Well, Kristina and I (by the way, dude, I still have to stop myself from calling you Kemmi all the time...) did. Sarah was sadly too tired and didn't come with us. Sad face. Suffice to say... Peking duck was AMAZING. EAT IT. Don't miss it. It's really, really good.

The next day, we got up and went to the Forbidden City. Folks, this is a palace. It makes Versailles and Fontainebleau look like total and complete pikers. The sheer scale of the place is overwhelming.

After the Forbidden City we went for lunch. We picked a random restaurant. They didn't speak English. We don't speak Chinese. We coped. Though I have no idea what the NAME of what we ate was, it was tasty. Though our attempt to order 400 grams of chicken apparently only came through as "four" and "chicken", resulting in four orders of chicken, we managed to eat it all. We were hungry from all the exercise we were getting!

When we tried to leave the restaurant, a random guy started talking to us and flagged us a cab. Then the cab driver tried to screw us and was generally being difficult so we got back out; but some random old lady was biking between the cab and the curb and we hit the back of her bike with the door. She went flying! For whatever reason, our random street corner friend shouted her down in Chinese for us and made her go away. What actually happened here I have no idea. We went back to the hostel and rested, then went tea shopping! The first tea shop we tried, the owner told us to go away! I don't think he wanted to sell tea to foreigners. After over six months of living in Japan, this is the first time I've been chased out of an establishment for being foreign. It wasn't that big of a deal; the next tea shop was cuter anyway and the girls were really friendly. Win! Also they gave us free candies and let us taste the teas.

After that we went back to the hostel for a dumpling/Chinese New Year's party with the AMAZING gang of Chinese Box Hostel . If you go to Beijing, I don't care if you can afford a luxury hotel. Stay here. Trust me. You will not be sorry.

Anyway, the New Year celebrations were a wonderful success! We learned how to fold dumplings... er, well, we tried. Most people had more luck than I did!

Later in the night, we set off fireworks of our own, and at midnight, the entire city lit up as Beijingers writ large greeted the Year of the Tiger in style. As a proud feline representative myself (1986) I am especially delighted to have celebrated the lunar New Year in China! Sadly, this was the end of my trip - I caught a cab to the airport at 4:45am to return to Akita. Back in the office the next day, if you can believe it! 8:15 just like always.

While this post is basically just a trip report, I found a lot of interesting and compelling things about visiting China. It has certainly given me some new perspectives on all the talk you hear about "emerging China" and so on. Since you read my blog, and this is where I talk about stuff I want to talk about, and I want to talk about that, expect a post in the next few days addressing my social and political observations from my trip! But till then, enjoy the pictures. There are more on FaceBook!

Sarah, Kristina, I had so much fun. Sarah, like me, is recontracting; I'm going to try and chase her down for another Asian adventure come fall! Sadly Kristina is leaving us - but I'm very excited for her, as she will be attending grad school next year! Seriously, dude, I'm crashing your pad in London. Thanks also to the Box Hostel gang and all the new friends met there! This was an awesome trip. Let's hope the awesome ball keeps rolling for my upcoming adventures in Cambodia and Thailand next month!

A Year in Review

2010-01-26T18:16:00.003+09:00

Today marks the 6 month anniversary of my stay in Japan. Given that, it seemed like a good time for a quick recap of the last year.

I had reconstructive ACL surgery last January and spent most of my time in physical therapy and being unable to walk. This sucked. I was also beginning the final semester of my fairly protracted tenure as a college student. At the end of January, I was notified that I had qualified for an interview with JET.

Knee surgery is a bitch.

In February, I went to Chicago for my JET interview and continued the usual business of studying (well, sorta) and physical therapy for my knee.

March marched along more or less the same. In April, I was notified that JET had accepted me, and I also ended my tenure with TeachStreet. In May, the longest romantic relationship of my life came to an abrupt and unexpected end. Four days later I graduated from college.

Me and Jackie, my wonderful beloved roomie.

June brought a three-week trip to France (though, for the sake of bragging rights, we went via Copenhagen, even though I saw nothing save the airport) with my family, during which I celebrated my 23rd birthday in Paris.

In July, I went to Yellowstone Park with my mom. At the end of July, just one week after the end of the Yellowstone trip, I threw most of my stuff into two gigantic suitcases and boarded a plane for Tokyo orientation with JET.

Yellowstone.

Tokyo.

In August I arrived at my new home in Akita Prefecture, and began my work with the JET program. September and October continued much the same, with some travel within Akita Prefecture.

Welcome to school.

Halloween was pretty awesome.

In November, I took a trip to Kyoto and Osaka.

December saw me coming home to Seattle, with
an overnight stay in Seoul, Korea on the way home. I am now back in Akita, with JET, and am eagerly looking forward to a trip to Beijing next month.

I guess you could call it a busy year.

Onward! (That's for you, Dave.)

We went birdwatcing at Nisqually while I was home!

Brought to You By Request

2010-01-25T16:47:00.001+09:00

As any of you (are there any of you?) who are regular readers may have noticed, I've been a bit... Well, let's just cut to the chase. I haven't updated at all in a while. In fact it's been so long that the notion of trying to catch y'all up has become kind of daunting. But thanks to the wishes of my wonderful friend Meg, here you go; the longest update in the history of humankind. Ready, steady....GO!

As of my last update, December 16th, I was a few days away from returning home to visit the USA!! That trip went swimmingly, despite the fact that the kaki (persimmons) and mikan (mandarin oranges) I tried to bring for my family were confiscated in Customs because I declared them. I tried really hard not to yell at the Customs man lecturing me on fines for not declaring things. Since he was wearing a uniform, and I was not yet through Customs, I was unfailingly polite. My internal narration went something like this...

"You facking idiot, I am only over here BECAUSE I declared my oranges. If I had not declared them, you never would have noticed. WHY ARE YOU LECTURING ME ABOUT DECLARING MY ITEMS??!! The people who need that lecture are already halfway to baggage claim you asswipe!".

These are not things one should generally say to uniformed persons in airports, however. And so I bit my tongue.

At any rate, I was welcomed home to Seattle (albeit both persimmon- and orange-less) by my mom and dad waiting as I came up the escalator. I have never been so happy to see two people in my entire life! We drove home, where I was also so happy to see both of my baby brothers! It was the most beautiful thing in the world to be home, with my whole family around me. I was biting back tears (sorry guys - 7,028 miles and 17 hours' time change of separation warrants a wee bit of sentimentality). We spent a glorious winter break together, joined by one of my best friends ever (DL!!!). We went skiing, ate tons of delicious food, watched movies, went to see Avatar, drank lots of good wine, and went to the rock climbing gym. Luckily, two of the coolest people ever, Kim and Dave, also carved out some time to see me, as did my old high school friend John! I have never had such a wonderful vacation in all my life!! Thank you to all I saw, and sorry I missed you to those I didn't. It was very hard to say goodbye and return to Japan.

Of course I did. On the way home I spent a night in Seoul, South Korea, before returning to Akita Prefecture. I had begun seriously reconsidering my decision to recontract - I miss all of you at home so much! But the next few weeks held enough good things that I think I will probably stay after all.

Shortly after I returned to Japan, I was so fortunate to be invited into the Takanos' (one of my coworkers at Yuri Elementary, Mr. Takano's) home for a mochi-making party! We made traditional rice cakes using a mortar and giant hammer, then ate a huge, delicious supper featuring our very own rice cakes. The Takano family is a very talented bunch - they shared with me everything from Frisbee golf in their living room (Mr. Takano's father is the Japan National Frisbee Golf Champ), to juggling (Mr. Takano's mother can juggle one-handed), to magic tricks, string games, strategy board games and traditional Japanese toys with his son and daughter. (Note: I am purposely not mentioning names, as I don't have permission from the persons in question, and Japanese people are very careful about Internet privacy.) It was a wonderful evening, which culminated in the grandfather giving me a sixpack of beer for the road, the whole family seeing my taxi off in the snow, and a fifteen-minute chat with my taxi driver on the way home - hooray for immersion language learning!

That weekend was my skiing debut in Japan - I went to my friend Alfonso's for the weekend. We went skiing, played my new PS2 karaoke game, and ate way too much sushi.
It was a practically perfect weekend! The following weekend was similar, although the weather was much less cooperative, so we gave up (the wind was blowing us UPHILL at the ski area!) and went to Odate for arcade games and dinner instead.

This past weekend, I attended a Shinto ceremony with my fellow teachers, followed by an enkai (work drinking party). The Shinto ceremony was very interesting, and I had to participate as well! I was kind of watching everyone else out of the corner of my eye, trying to time my clapping and bowing correctly. The ceremony is specifically to help our sannensei (third graders) pass their high school entrance exams... So much for confidence in our own teaching prowess. After the ceremony we treated ourselves to a sumptuous feast in a gorgeous tatami room at Anraku Onsen, right near my house.

I spent the rest of the weekend mostly on housekeeping and errands. Some things never change, even overseas.

This week, I'm looking forward to an organized snowball fight among JETs in Akita City on Sunday. I'm not sure yet what I'll do before that - on Saturday, Alfonso and I may meet up at Lake Tazawa for some real skiing (as opposed to the limited bunny hill offerings of our local areas).

Today, I got the final step (my visa application) of planning for next month's trip to Beijing out of the way - China, here I come!!! I am very excited to visit Beijing. Stay tuned for pictures of me on the Great Wall of China...

Coffee Break's Over

2009-12-16T20:55:00.001+09:00

I think, given the Japanese alchemy that transformed the item in this picture from "Amanda's car" into "Amanda's igloo" over the course of a standard work day, it's safe to say that fall is over and winter has come at last to Honjo. This, admittedly, is not an occurrence I can honestly say I greet with joy, for a variety of reasons. As one of my mother's favorite jokes ends, "Coffee break's over, everyone back on your heads." The arrival of winter here in Akita definitely (despite its tranquil beauty and capacity to elicit almost childlike delight) certainly carries with it a modicum of the "coffee break's over" sentiment.

To start with, those of you who don't live here are probably unaware of this fact, but few if any Japanese homes are equipped with central heating or insulation. This translates to a whole lot of freezing-my-tush-off once the temperature goes below about 60 Fahrenheit. Furthermore, I am not now, nor have I ever been, a huge fan of scraping snow off of cars or shoveling out parking spaces. I see an abundance of both in my future. At any rate, enough whining about the weather. Hopefully I'll at least get to enjoy some good time at the ski-jo when I return from America with my equipment.

**ANNOUNCEMENT!!** For those who missed it, I will be visiting my hometown of Seattle from December 24th to January 2nd. If you want to see me please get in touch so we can lock something down!

Moving on from weather and travel nonsense. Today, I found myself further in the debt of the ever-wonderful Miss Ayako Sasaki. I was seriously stressing because Yashima Elementary (my least favorite school, if you'll recall from earlier posts/complaining...) wanted me to spend ten minutes each in three different classes talking about what Americans do for Christmas. There are two issues here. One, none of them speak any English worth mentioning, so anything I said would be a waste of air. Second, my Japanese (and more importantly my confidence in my Japanese) is nowhere near good enough to really explain Christmas. I have a serious aversion to promoting and enforcing stereotypes in Japan - though sometimes, it's the only route to take (see previous post regarding who my favorite singers are when I am on school premises...). But I have a much bigger issue selling the old tried-and-true expected explanation of Christmas. It leaves a sour taste in my mouth, as if I had just confirmed that black people only eat fried chicken and grits. I feel a strong desire to explain that not all Americans celebrate Christmas - some celebrate other holidays, like Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, and some celebrate nothing at all - and that among those who do celebrate, there are many different traditions.

I was getting pretty distressed at the idea of having no choice but to affirm Japanese stereotypes and pre-assumptions about American holidays, when Miss Sasaki flew to my rescue. Like the angel that she is, upon seeing my distress and asking me to explain the reason, she made a suggestion.

"How about you write down what you want to say, and I will translate it into Japanese so the homeroom teacher can explain to the children?"

God bless you, Ayako-sensei.

As a result of her generosity, I will now be able to explain at least to some extent the diversity of the holiday season in America to Yashima Elementary. How well it will go over and/or stick remains to be seen...but at least I won't go home feeling as if I've just been a willing participant in a minstrel show.

Hilarious sidenotes:

1) In my explanation of American Christmas, I did address the many people who celebrate a different holiday (Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, etc) and those who celebrate nothing at all. This produced shock and confusion in my Japanese coworkers, including the question "What is a Jewish?"
2) I described some classic Christmas traditions, including leaving milk and cookies out for Santa. Apparently, none of my coworkers have ever heard of this. They were all extremely puzzled. One of them asked me if Santa did not eat meat because all we fed him was cookies - evidently milk and cookies = vegetarian.
3) I described hanging stockings. One flabbergasted Japanese coworker asked me in shock, "So you put your socks on the stove?!?!"
4) I explained that my family does not do much to celebrate Christmas. My coworkers reacted with consternation and confusion. They were also surprised that most people in the US consider Christmas a time to visit family - apparently in Japan, Christmas is closer in spirit to Valentine's Day...as in, a holiday for lovers. Eek.

Clearly, one cannot make any assumptions regarding cross-cultural understanding. Of course, I am equally guilty; I have had enough preconceptions shattered here to know that my notions about Japan were nearly as misguided as Japanese preconceptions about America are.

As a wise man (Wayne Moyer!) once told me in a different context, "Where you stand depends on where you sit." Sitting here in Japan has certainly changed where I stand on many issues, including gender roles, sexual politics, religion, manners, and multiculturalism or diversity.

Stand where you may, forget not that others may sit elsewhere. Amen.

Rant, Cont'd.

2009-12-14T20:18:00.006+09:00

Ok. So, last night's update in fact glossed over several other (equally hilarious, albeit unintentionally hugely offensive) episodes that I have endured of late. These include glorious moments such as the following conversation with one of my JTEs.

JTE: Have you eaten yakiniku?
Me: Yes. I like it a lot.
JTE: Ah. Where have you eaten?
Me: You mean where in Japan?
JTE: So.
Me: Well I haven't eaten yakiniku in Japan.
JTE: Ah. So you have never tried yakiniku.
Me: No I've had it, just not in Akita.
JTE: Right. So you have not tried.
Me: Have you ever heard of frikking Benihana?!?!

The total disconnect here was the notion that one might possibly live in a country that is NOT Japan in which one might be able to consume Japanese foods. My school staffers were amazed to hear that in the average American supermarket you can buy rice and soy sauce. Blew their minds. I felt it unnecessary to further shock their systems by explaining that many American user manuals, signs, guidebooks, menus, etc are available in Japanese, sushi and sashimi are popular, and we DO know what miso soup, gyoza, ramen, udon, soba, yakiniku and mochi are in the US. I was afraid I was the only one whose head wouldn't spontaneously explode, which would mean I'd get stuck cleaning Japanese brains off the teachers' room walls. Let's just say there's a reason that if you have any Japanese friends and you tell them you know an American girl who lives in Akita, their facial expression will probably move in this progression: shock, pity, and politely composed lemonade-making of the lemon most people consider life in Akita to be. (I actually sort of like it here, weird and alien and isolated as it is. But people's comments about "Wow. There are old people, trees and rice paddies there. Pack a coat." aren't too far off the mark to be honest.)

This is why, despite my annoyances with the place, I don't think Japanese people are racist. (One small amendment there; I think they ARE racist towards other Asians, ESPECIALLY Koreans and Southeast Asians. But not non-ethnically-Asian people.) When it comes to non-Asian people, Japanese people don't even really have "negative" or "hateful" or "condescending" attitudes. There's simply a short-circuit. Japan, for example, really doesn't have American or Mexican or Indian food readily available - as a consequence, Japanese people tend to assume that Americans only have access to American food (which, as far as they can tell from their media - remember American media sells us some pretty absurd international stereotypes, too - is hamburgers and french fries). Logical enough; in their country, they mostly only have their own ethnic cuisine...so the notion that Americans eat only McDonald's is a reasonable inference. McDonald's is American, they know McDonald's, so it follows that Americans, living in America, must eat McDonald's. And since most international food doesn't exist here, and many Japanese people (at least in Akita) have limited if any exposure to the world outside Japan, they extrapolate from their own situations and assume that other countries don't eat Japanese food, just like Japanese don't eat other countries' food particularly.

This is cold comfort in that it makes the assumptions understandable, not less annoying.

Similarly, the Japanese shock and horror that I don't know their celebrities, TV shows, idols, bands and comedians by name and face is aggravating. When I was first introduced, kids would ask me what singers or TV shows I liked. Originally I was truthful...a tactic that, as my friend Tom recently commiserated, elicited mostly blank stares and disappointment. Scrubs, Jeopardy!, Top Chef and Entourage, apparently, are not big here. Much easier to lie and say you love friggin' SpongeBob Squarepants...Similarly, don't say you like Green Day, Pearl Jam, Jimmi Hendrix or Sweatshop Union. My favorite singers, for convenience purposes and only on school premises, are Madonna, Michael Jackson and Britney Spears. And yet, somehow, despite the fact that THEY know none of MY pop culture idols, icons and standbys...they, including my JTEs, never cease to be amazed and/or horrified by my lack of knowledge of Japanese celebrities and pop culture.

Hello people. This should not be a mystery. DO I LOOK JAPANESE?!?!

Sofia Coppola had the right idea but failed to express it in its full depth and spectrum....

Sometimes I feel like my whole life is lost in translation.

After Almost Half a Year...Time for a Rant.

2009-12-13T19:56:00.018+09:00

This is hatahata, a specialty fish and popular early winter food in Akita. The roe has a similar consistency to natto. This is a great item when playing feed-the-foreigner. Made an unwelcome appearance in my life two nights in a row. Thank you Japanese friends, I love your pranks.

After having been here nearly half a year (which some days seems like it has passed in the blink of an eye, and other days feels like an eternity) during which I have scrupulously not lost my temper, I feel it is time to release some pent-up frustration about certain aspects of life in Japan. Disclaimer: On the whole I am quite happy here. Frustrations frequently distill to individuals, circumstances or miscommunications, frequently with good intent. Venting about them is in no way intended as an indictment of Japan, Japanese people, or even the specific person who may be involved in a given incident.

Disclaimer aside, some of these things are absolutely monumentally annoying and frustrating, all high aspirations of cultural exchange be damned. (This is by no means a comprehensive list of frustrations or annoyances; recently I've simply encountered a spate of them that merited at least a digital venting session, if not a few laughs...)

To begin, a short narrative. I was out at an enkai (work drinking party) with a select subset of my colleagues from one school, and an old friend of theirs who used to teach at my school but now teaches in another town (whom I had never met). It was a fun evening, but eventually, the new guy started chatting me up. He asked me about my feelings towards Japanese food and dining in Akita. The conversation proceeded something as follows.

Japanese Man: Have you eaten at many restaurants in Akita Prefecture?

Amanda: Some. I don't eat out much, though, since I live alone. Eating at restaurants is less fun alone.

JM: Ah. I see. But I know what your favorite restaurant in Akita is.

A: *eyebrow raise* Oh? (thinking to self: is there one I've been to an inordinate amount?! I don't eat out that often...)

JM: *triumphantly* McDonald's!!!

A: *stare*

A: I haven't eaten at McDonald's since I came to Japan.

JM: Oh. KFC then.

A: Uh....No, I haven't eaten there either.

*long pause*

JM: *critical stare* Are you really American?!?!

Right. Ok. I have eaten neither KFC nor McDonald's since my arrival here in July. Given that everyone in this area, for several towns around, apparently tracks my every move (down to a random sushi restaurant owner two towns over knowing which convenience store I stop at on the way to work to buy breakfast when I'm running late, and that breakfast is usually two onigiri (rice balls) and I only ever buy salted salmon or shrimp and mayo....) and knows me by my height, body type and distinctive ponytail...I infer everyone knows there hasn't been a single KFC or McDonald's related sighting of Amanda-sensei. This means only one thing; even if nobody caught me doing it, not even the employees, being American, I must by definition be eating KFC and McDonald's, because that is what Americans eat. Oh stereotypes, thank you so.

Besides, McDonald's looks like Le Bernadin compared to this nightmare they served me at that enkai:

This is shirako. That translates as "fish testicles filled with sperm/semen". I couldn't bring myself to eat it. My table neighbor, however, in his enthusiasm, was stirring it excitedly to eat it, and splattered it on my pants. I got spooged on by a fish. A dead fish. Thank you, Japan, for bringing necrophilia and bestiality into perfect harmony in a single meal.

Next up: at work. One of my JTEs and I are chatting. She then, quite nonchalantly, asks me to describe to her in details what Americans do in church for Christmas.

...

In addition to making me a hamburger-and-crispy-chicken-family-basket-snarfing lardass, apparently being American also means I must, necessarily, attend church. Especially for my religiously significant holidays like Christmas. Despite numerous explanations, including explaining the Latin roots of "theos" and "a-" for "atheist", somehow the concept just hasn't quite sunk in. Sigh.

This was further substantiated later that week at my main elementary school. I stayed a bit later than usual, chatting with my kocho- and kyoto-senseis and some random teachers in the teachers' room. They started asking me about my musical training. I explained many US primary schools, and almost all middle schools, lacked mandatory music classes. They were horrified. Then, inspiration and clarity struck. Their faces lit up with comprehension. They gleefully announced....

"I see! You learned how to sing in church!"

...

Shoot me. Please.

I have also discovered that none of my schools have the foggiest notion that some Americans celebrate Hannukah, Kwanzaa, nothing, or any number of other holidays during this time of year. For convenience's sake I may just not hassle with explaining this. I feel it will probably go galloping down the same road of futility as my attempts to explain that I am not, never have been, and never will be a Christian. In Japan, being American has some very simple defining characteristics. Apparently, being Christian and a McDonald's addict are two of them. I'll get my revenge yet though for the hatahata and shirako torture; when I return here from the US, I got permission to have my middle schoolers taste-test American foods like ants-on-a-log, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and corn chips with jarred nacho cheese dip. Take THAT, Japan.

Nacho cheese in a jar. That's America's answer to natto, y'all.

Testing Testing: We're Back

2009-11-30T18:17:00.015+09:00

Sorry for the neglect. I've been really busy! Not with work, actually, since as my friends here all know I have the single cushiest posting on the JET Program and only ACTUALLY work about four hours a week, and two of those probably involve playing games, drinking tea and eating cookies or candy with my elementary schoolers. The remainder of my work hours (40 a week) are spent surfing the internet in the Yuri Chu teachers' room.

Dave, I hope you're taking notes on how to treat an employee. ;-)

At any rate, for all the idleness of my gainful unemployment, I try to compensate on my days off...of which I also have an excessive number compared to other JETs in the area it seems. Consequently I've been traveling quite a bit. Destinations include Akita City, Odate, and last weekend, a journey to Kyoto and Osaka via Tokyo. To get the trip report type stuff out of the way, here's the scoop on Kyoto and Osaka, and then we'll get into my latest reflections on Japan and the experience of living here.

I took the Akita Komachi shinkansen (bullet train) from Akita City to Tokyo, where I transferred to the Nozomi shinkansen to Kyoto. Because I hadn't reserved a seat in advance, I ended up standing (well really sitting perched on my suitcase) in the compartment between two cars, crammed in with Tokyo salarymen who were all drinking, smoking, playing Nintendo DS, or in many cases passing out leaning against the wall. One could, I suppose, refer to this as a "cultural experience". I call it simply hilarious, since I paid 120 dollars to sit on my suitcase for two and a half hours inhaling smoke and surrounded by drunk Japanese businessmen. God bless the land of the rising sun.

Since we had planned very last minute everything was booked up hotel-wise in both Kyoto AND Osaka, but a friend and fellow Seattle JET who lives in Osaka (George) generously sorted out with his landlady for me and my travel partner, Elliott, to stay in his apartment building's guest room. So upon arriving in Kyoto I took a local train to Osaka, where I met up with Mari in Osaka Station. George was busy that evening, so his neighbor/friend/senpai Sam met up with me and Mari. He showed us to our temporary home (his and George's building) and then he, Mari and I went out for some izakaya (a Japanese pub serving small plates). Near their apartment exists a wondrous place known as the 280 - a modern fusion izakaya where EVERYTHING costs only 280 yen. Want some beef skewers? 280 yen. A huge beer? 280 yen. How about some fried cheese with butter on top that you push inside with your chopsticks to melt? 280 yen. Oh and by the way let the last item be a clue - leave behind your illusions about the refinement and healthfulness of Japanese food. If it can be eaten, it can be found in Japan deep fried, slathered in mayonnaise, topped with butter, and/or covered in a thick sugary sauce. Japanese people love fried anything; fried chicken, fried potatoes, fried cheese (even though they hate cheese), fried croquettes, fried pork loin, fried fish, fried fritters, fried vegetables, fried squid, fried meatballs, fried tofu, fried boiled quail eggs, fried fish cakes, fried hot dogs, fried onion, fried shrimp. If you can eat it, they have breaded it, fried it, topped it with mayonnaise, Worcestershire and skipjack tuna flakes. Japan even has multiple WORDS for fried foods, depending on the exact style of frying. 天ぷら, or tempura, is probably the best known outside of the country - originally Portuguese, it's a light panko batter with a pale yellow color. Usually applied to veggies like Japanese pumpkin, shiso leaf, etc, as well as the famous tempura shrimp, though I have also had tempura squid which is quite good. Next is カツ, or katsu, a slightly heavier, more brown-looking breading usually used on meats like chicken or pork. They also have フライ, or furai (katakana pronunciation of fry), which is the heaviest breading you'll likely find in Japan. They also have 唐揚げ, or karaage, a special soy-sauce layered technique of breading used primarily for chicken. Karaage is a popular dish at many izakaya. Lest you think we were done, they also have many kinds of stir-fries and shallow fried dishes, including yakisoba, fried rice, gyoza, and pan-fried chicken or fish. And while I am on the topic, Japanese people are OBSESSED with mayonnaise. I mean OBSESSED. You will find mayo on hamburgers, teriyaki, takoyaki (octopus fritters), pizza, okonomiyaki, sandwiches, salads (potato salad, pasta salad, tuna salad and egg salad are very popular), as salad dressing, as a sauce on pasta, and as a dip for fried chicken, French fries, and pretty much anything else including raw veggies. So much for the myth that the Japanese live forever due to a healthy diet.

If living like a Japanese person ensures longevity, I should probably start smoking like a chimney, drinking beer like water, and sucking down deep-fried foods and mayo as if I were a child freshly escaped from Bosnia.

At any rate, the next morning I took the train into Kyoto and met up with Elliott. We then went sightseeing, including Kiyomizudera and Sanjusangendo, both famous Kyoto sights. Sanjusangendo contains 1,001 statues of the Buddha Kannon, and many National Treasure statues of Buddhist gods and goddesses. Kiyomizudera is a beautiful temple, and it is said that if you drink the clear waters there you will have long life and great beauty.

For dinner we found a Spanish restaurant, and while we were having a discussion about grammar differences between English, Japanese and Chinese, a Chinese man from two tables away walked over, sat down and began chatting us up. He reminded me of nobody more than Professor Hsieh, one of my favorite teachers and mentors! That night we went out with Mari and George in Shinsaibashi in Osaka. We visited Zerro, a gaijin bar featuring a Corona-and-lime foosball table, before going to Bamboo, a Middle Eastern restaurant owned by an Israeli. We shared lamb kebabs, good conversation, and hookah. After Bamboo, we went for karaoke. We stayed late enough to miss the last train, so we just stayed up all night singing to take the first train home the next morning! When I told my JTE, Ms Sasaki, this story, she told me I am like a Japanese college student. Whether that's good or bad, I'm not sure.

The next day we got a late start due to our late night, so the only Kyoto sight Elliott and I managed on Sunday was Ginkakuji, or the Silver Temple. It was raining, but still beautiful! We had the best ramen I've had in Japan for lunch, and discovered a French cafe on our way home. With French radio playing in the background, we enjoyed coffee, beer and the best breads I've had since France!

That night we took it easy, just going for a few drinks and some good eats at a local pub. Mari and I shared several small plates, including a mochi cheese that was just yummy! Elliott was tired so he went home early, but Mari and I went with George to the 280 to keep hanging out a while longer. For the record, ice-cream filled frozen strawberries for 280 yen a plate were a FABULOUS idea, Mari!

Monday, our final day and day of departure, Elliott and I went to Kinkakuji, the legendary Golden Temple. Because all the train station lockers were taken, we had to drag our suitcases along for the trip! I'm sure we looked absurd! But the Golden Temple was as beautiful as can be, and we really enjoyed our visit. Even our heavy luggage couldn't ruin the experience!

Finally, exhausted but happy, we caught the Nozomi shinkansen back to Tokyo (two and a half more hours sitting on a suitcase...no seats available...), where Elliott and I parted ways. He boarded the Tohoku shink to Yamagata, and I got on the Akita Komachi back home to my rural, rice paddy-full home.

So that was my trip to Kyoto! The sights, company, food and experiences were fantastic. I'm really happy I went.

So, as if this post wasn't long enough, on to my latest and greatest puzzlements with Japan. There are many, and the longer I live here the more I find, so expect more to come if I get un-lazy about this blog. At any rate, the question of the moment is Japanese attitudes regarding homosexuality.

On the surface level, Japan is incredibly tolerant and accepting of what might appear to be homosexual behaviors. My junior high school boys frequently hold hands, give each other piggy back rides, and link arms; I've even come into a room to find a few of them snuggled up on the floor in a corner spooning. Ironically, Japan is VERY intolerant of actual homosexual relationships. Two persons of the same sex taking a room at a love hotel*, or in some cases a normal hotel, may very well be asked to leave. Homosexual relationships, ESPECIALLY for women, are beyond taboo. And yet, my junior high boys spoon, snuggle, hold hands, and collect Hello Kitty pens and pink cell phones. How does this all resolve?!

Ultimately, I think it dilutes down to the Japanese sense of masculinity and femininity, which is very different from the US sense of this dynamic. Masculinity is being a father, a breadwinner, a husband. It has nothing to do with snuggling other men or liking pink. It's much more concrete; consequently, "cool" high school boys in Japan frequently look like drag queens, in some cases even wearing makeup, with heavily styled hair and a feminine (to my Western eye) affectation. Much like the question of Japanese "racism", this question of Japanese "homophobia" is a very ambiguous and confusing area to examine. Actions and preferences that would be definitely considered "gay" (probably if not certainly to the social detriment of the parties in question in the US) are totally normal, acceptable, and even cool here. And yet, the notion of an actual gay relationship isn't even necessarily discriminated against per se ...because it's simply so taboo that it never happens, at least not openly. I confess I find this dichotomy - acceptance of homo-suggestive behaviors, and total rejection of homosexuality - somewhat confuzzling. That said, it is nice to see people (both male and female) feeling comfortable being affectionate with their friends gender notwithstanding, as well as feeling free to like the colors or characters that they like, without being forced by gender norms to or away from one or the other (ie, pink being girly in the US). Japanese society doesn't abuse or hate on homosexuals; it's simply so taboo, and the social pressure to conform is so strong, that it's rarely (if ever) an issue. Do you think this is better or worse than the situation in the US, where homosexual behavior is stigmatized even in the most liberal of places? (Think associations with pink, male handholding in junior high, etc...Even the most liberal and accepting American has some pretty thoroughly ingrained biases about what is "gay" or not.) Is it better or worse to embrace open displays but make relationships so taboo that they rarely emerge as a question, or to have a society that at worst openly harms gay people (ie Matthew Shepherd) and at best clings to subtle biases despite its claims of acceptance?

I'm not sure; both situations have their drawbacks and their advantages. Thoughts?

*A love hotel is a by-the-hour hotel, usually with a theme like tropical, etc, intended specifically for couples. Since many single young people in Japan still live at home, in many cases in multi-generational living situations, love hotels are a solution for young couples looking for some privacy. They tend to be cheap, affordable and reputably quite fun.

When In Rome

2009-11-08T21:07:00.005+09:00

The season is definitely turning here in Akita, as the days grow shorter, the temperatures drop, fewer and fewer leaves remain on the trees, and violent storms sweep in off the Sea of Japan with increasing frequency. The bite of winter is lingering in the morning air. The trees are close to concluding their striptease for the year, and the rice paddies stand, - stubbly, mown and harvested - glaring mournfully at passersby with the wounded dignity of a shaved cat. Bent and wrinkled obaachans and ojiisans continue hobbling and granny biking about, albeit now wrapped in a very Japanese-looking layer of quilted, padded clothing. Japanese pumpkin and soups have supplanted corn and cold noodles in my school lunch, and I have fired up my kotatsu (a table with a heat on its underside, covered with a quilted blanket tablecloth). Indeed, autumn is coming to a close here in Tohoku. And as it does so, I am confronting a reality for anyone living abroad - homesickness.

I hit what is referred to as "Stage 2" of overseas living (the panicky, weepy, melt-down-general-mess stage that follows euphoria and precedes acceptance and integration) very early on here in Japan. I hope I never descend again to the level of stress and misery I endured during that time - that said, for anyone who is currently living, or is thinking of moving, abroad from your home country...advice from a Stage 2 survivor. Stage 2 happens. It sucks. Bigtime. The main reason I'm still in Japan is probably because I hit Stage 2 prior to having a phone or internet access so I couldn't book a flight home. But it does pass, and it is worth it to stick it out. The rewards are great, however insurmountable the turmoil of Stage 2 may seem.

But as fall fades into winter, I am finding myself confronted with a different kind of sadness. This is a gentler homesickness than the violent loneliness and stress that wracked my world a few months ago. This homesickness isn't outright painful so much as it tugs at my heartstrings - I miss all of you at home, I miss familiar places and voices and foods and routines. I miss Seattle; I miss Grinnell. It's almost as if my Stage 2 was a violent, ripping separation, and what I'm experiencing now is a slow-growing melancholy as it becomes clear to me what I've left behind (even if only temporarily). I'm certainly not in Stage 2, because I do feel some comfort with my life here in Japan, but the weight of being forever foreign, forever noteworthy, forever outside, does begin to wear on a person over time. I'm fatigued and I can't wait to visit home and recharge.

I almost hate to admit that I feel loneliness or sadness, because in so many ways being here is such an amazing opportunity that negative emotions seem unwarranted. But it seems that nobody is very open about their feelings in this regard, and for myself as well as for any other expats (current, prior or pending) out there, I think it's important to say that yes, we feel this, and it's ok. Homesickness, it seems to me, is a natural and necessary part of the process of moving away from your own country. In ways you would never imagine - from working the ATM, to screwing up basic courtesy and procedure when buying a soda at the convenience store, to being served weird unknown comestibles that manners dictate you must eat, to being unable to express even the simplest ideas to people around you - it's exhausting and frustrating to be a foreigner. And over time I think that compounds into total exhaustion with being foreign. I can't speak for anyone except myself, but I for one am currently working through feelings of cultural fatigue, language depression (I'd really hoped my Japanese would be better by now) and homesickness. I find it helps to talk often with people at home, as well as to distract myself by going out and occupying myself here. To that end I went to a track practice coached by my Yuri Elementary curriculum coordinator/JTE, Mr. Takano, this Saturday.

Most of the team members are under twelve, and I'm a distance runner not a sprinter (ever been out-sprinted by a tiny Japanese seven-year old girl? After this weekend I have), but it was a blast anyway! Hopefully wonderful moments like this keep cropping up to remind me why it's worth the loneliness and challenges of living as an expat - this is really why I'm here, after all.

Also, for any of you who are Seattlites, I'll be home for about ten days in December covering Christmas eve through the first week of January. If you want to hang out, please let me know! I would love to see you. And for myself and others who are far from home, sometimes when in Rome, it's ok to be really sick and tired of being in Rome.

Of Logistics and Race

2009-10-29T20:41:00.012+09:00

Sorry for the lack of updates! It's been a busy week or so. But, sorry to disappoint those of you who were starting to hope, I am in fact still much alive and kicking, and will continue to saturate your RSS feeds and email alerts with my drivel. So, to fill you in on the basics...

1) I have decided to recontract. So assuming my BOE doesn't think I suck rocks and refuse to take me back, I will be signing my soul away for another year here in Crazyland.

2) I have received my materials for my CLAIR (Council of Local Authorities for International Relations) correspondence course in Japanese. Those of you who attended college with me are invited to make your own inferences about how dutifully my studies are progressing thus far.

3) I have five days off in a row in mid-November. Those with ideas for destinations, offers of hospitality, or interest in coming along are encouraged to pipe up.

4) I have now experienced an enkai. It came as a double header last weekend and certainly merits deeper exploration of its cultural and interpersonal significance.

5) I threw a Halloween party for 253 kids at my elementary school this week and I think I can safely say it was a success. I am never again writing 253 hiragana nametags by hand, attaching them 253 gift bags, each of which I had to holepunch to attach the tag, and stuffing all 253 bags by hand with candy. Never. Again. At least the kids had fun, and I think the staff really appreciated it too.

6) This week I had Monday off, 1 of my classes cancelled on Tuesday, and spent my elementary school teaching time handing out candy. On Wednesday, one of my classes was cancelled and I was excused from one because they were doing translation. Today, my elementary school cancelled so I spent the day sitting at my computer on chat, except for 45 minutes when I was invited to a class party to eat cake and play Bingo. I know it sounds like bull pucky but please believe you when I tell you that my job actually is kind of stressful. Really. Just not in the workload sense.

So for the real meat of this post, I'm going to talk about something that's pretty controversial, pretty loaded and - in the West - a pretty universally accepted truth.

I'm going to talk about racism in Japan.

In the West, we more or less take racism in Japan for granted. I remember once or twice a Japanese person in the States told me that Japan is not a racist country. I remember also how hard I worked to keep from busting out laughing because I thought they were nuts. Amazingly, now that I live here, I am going to make an assertion that - especially given that I elicit stares everywhere I go and people come up to me in the grocery store and peer into my basket to see what I'm buying, and children follow me down the street in awe - seems crazy. I am telling you straight up that, at least when it comes to Westerners like myself, the Japanese are not racist. I can't speak for their attitudes towards, say, Koreans, not having experienced being a Korean person in Japan. But as a Caucasian American, the Japanese are not racist.

Racism, I think, carries heavy implications about hate, or beliefs about inferior intellect, or similar bigotry. I think what the West mistakes for racism in the Japanese is none of these things. We are simply a multicultural, multiethnic society by nature. We are used to "different" - linguistically, racially, culturally, religiously, everything. We see it every day. We have seminars on it at work.

Japan isn't racist. It simply lacks a concept of "different".

The staring isn't because they think I am inferior or worthless or that they hate me. They stare because I am DIFFERENT. And different doesn't happen here. In a country so thoroughly homogenous, the notion of diversity is, pardon my slight pun here, foreign. And when it is thrust upon them, the Japanese react, unsurprisingly, with insular behavior, shyness, and an inward-turning reaction that is easily mistaken for discrimination. In reality, I think it is a natural enough human response in a society that pretty thoroughly lacks a concept of, much less exposure to, diversity. If you saw someone in the US walking butt naked down the middle of the freeway wearing a clown wig, you'd stare. You're not being discriminatory; it's just a completely alien appearance and you are reacting to something unforseen and for which you lack a learned appropriate response. So you manifest the natural, basic human reaction of surprise and curiosity. And while I am probably not quite as crazy as someone walking naked down the interstate in clown accessories, I am just as unexpected in the 99.99% homogenous society into which I have gaijin stomped over the last few months.

So, ironically enough, this gaijin, who is regularly reminded just how alien she is here, finds herself defending the Japanese. They are not racist - they simply lack a comprehension of diversity, which is not the same thing.

The Un-Imperial Island

2009-10-20T12:08:00.006+09:00

One of the most shocking things to me about moving to Japan was discovering just exactly how isolated and insular this country is. I went to France this past summer; France was another country. Then in July I landed in Tokyo, and Tokyo was another planet. A few days later I stepped off a plane in Akita...and forget different country, forget different planet...Akita is at least an entirely different galaxy, if not a different universe. Japan itself is a virtually monolingual, almost 100% homogenous population. As an island, particularly as a small island separated from its nearest continental neighbors by an entire sea (the Sea of Japan), its total homogeny is virtually unique on the planet. In the United States, most people speak English, but you will frequently overhear conversations in restaurants, on buses, or from passerby on cellphones or with friends, in numerous other languages. In Japan, if you hear anything other than Japanese, your head snaps around. Furthermore, Japanese citizens are almost to a one ethnically Japanese. This is because citizenship of children is based on the citizenship of the parents...not on birth within Japan's borders. So, if your parents are not Japanese citizens, you may have been born in Japan, lived your whole life here, speak nothing but Japanese...and still have to carry an alien registration card with you at all times.

Japan's inward tendencies have a long history - and have many visible modern repercussions. For example, the Japanese language is probably the only natural language in the world that comes close to the clean, logical patterns of artificial languages. While Japanese is undeniably an intricate and challenging language to learn, it is shockingly logical - and notably free of irregular conjugations. The entire language has ONLY two irregular verbs, and they are irregular each according to their own set of rules, in every conjugation. The language is formulaic almost to the point of being mathematical in its constructions. Why? My only conclusion is that Japan's isolation prevented other languages from "mixing" with Japanese - thus minimizing the irregularities that linguistic interchange (think English, with its mixed Latin and Germanic roots, and regular interaction with other continental European languages like French, Spanish, German, Dutch, etc) introduces to less isolated languages and countries. Japan's island location prevented easy linguistic crossover, and even its interactions with countries like China were tightly regulated. Only specially chosen Japanese emissaries visited other nations, and emissaries from other countries to Japan were tightly controlled - they were not allowed to mingle freely, being supervised by government officials at all times and effectively quarantined from normal Japan. They saw only the Japan that Japanese officials chose to show them, and were permitted no free interaction with the nation's people, language, economy or anything else. This degree of control over foreign influences meant Japan borrowed much (think kanji, the Chinese characters that form such a challenging and integral part of written Japanese), but had firm control over how those influences were introduced. Thus, Japan managed to remain purely Japanese even as she incorporated to some degree select foreign influences.

This leads to the next great mystery about Japan; why did she ever become more than a hunter-gatherer society? The emergence of an advanced society in Japan is a great puzzle. Most societies evolved either in response to food pressure or to pressure from competing groups. Japan has an abundance of huntable and gatherable foods - fish, seaweed, nuts, roots, wild fruits and vegetables, small game, birds - in quantities more than sufficient to sustain the populations of that kind of society. It has adequate space, also, for such populations. It has materials such as reeds and bamboo for shelter and basic tools. With no neighboring societies to pressure them, why did Japan's effectively homogenous people ever move past the level of sophistication seen in societies like Alaskan natives or African communities? While sophisticated, these groups would certainly not be considered to have attained the degree of development reflected by Japanese agricultural, military, architectural and governmental technologies, techniques and infrastructures. Why did Japan ever become an advanced modern society? To me this is a great mystery.

Furthermore, Japan has never, in the true sense of the word, displayed colonial or imperial tendencies. Even in World War II, Japan was not imperial. She did not seek to relocate her own people outside her borders - rather, she sought to exploit other groups to benefit Japan...where, naturally, all Japanese people would still live. This oddly anti-imperial, anti-expansionist philosophy reflects the deep-seated introversion of Japanese society that I think foreigners often mistake for xenophobia or racism. While in some sense perhaps it is, I think its roots are fundamentally different than the way the Western world might perceive them.

That said all these factors combine to make Japan a marvel of unique (and often incomprehensible!) cultural, artistic, spiritual and philosophical traditions...and it certainly makes for an experience being an outsider living in a cultural that is not only fiercely introverted, but also populated almost exclusively with the in-crowd. I sometimes feel as if I am window-shopping through life but all the store doors are locked and I don't have the key. The views sure are spectacular though...

Now You See Me...

2009-10-18T21:33:00.005+09:00

Or more like, you didn't. You may have noticed that I was AWOL for a good portion of this week. This is because I spent two days at the JET Mid-Year Conference in Tenno, stayed over Saturday night in Akita City, and spent part of Saturday and most of Sunday in Odate and the Hachimantai area. I took a trip up to the Hachimantai Forest to see the leaves changing for fall, as well to see famous Lake Towada. The fall colors were truly amazing - the hills looked like the sponge paintings I used to do as a kid. Thanks to Wil and Michael for being such great hosts during my northerly weekend sojourn!

The JET Mid-Year Conference was a pretty valuable experience for me; despite getting horrendously and epically lost on the way there (sorry, Pete, Wil), I thought having both ALTs and JTEs (Assistant Language Teachers and Japanese Teachers of English, for those not in the know) at the conference was particularly helpful. Mixed sessions discussing each side's concerns and problems about team teaching really gave me some insight into the things I find frustrating about my job, and other sessions gave good ideas for lesson plans or activities that lend themselves well to team teaching. One of my favorite JTEs, Ayako Sasaki, was also in attendance, so I think she and I both have some valuable takeaways to discuss that will make us a more effective teaching team. I'm looking forward to making some changes at the office!

After the conference ended, I went to Akita City and spent a fun night out with some friends there. The next morning, my generous host was departing for Sendai to play cricket, so I turned north to Odate to impose upon the hospitality of yet another fantastic JET! I visited Hachimantai Forest and saw Lake Towada. Then, I returned to Odate, where I spent a delightful evening with friends (one known and some new!) at a fusion izakaya called Muu. The group at the table next to us was a boisterous bunch of Japanese people, and we proceeded to have a magic trick exchange with them. Apparently lit cigarettes are considered appropriate props by Japanese magicians.

All in all, a very exciting week, and one filled with lots of travels, new friends, and new sights. I know this post is basically just a trip report, but I promise a meatier update in the next few days. Also, I have my first enkai coming up this week (two, in fact! eep!) as well as my school festival for Yuri Junior - so I anticipate a lot of interesting material in the near future.

I Have A Hobby, Translated

2009-10-12T15:20:00.008+09:00

In Japan, everyone has a shumi, or hobby. They may consider this a standard part of a self-introduction, sharing one's hobbies. What they don't mention is that when they say "My hobby is...", it roughly translates to "I have been doing this since the first thirty seconds after I emerged from the womb and could probably be world-ranked in it if I wasn't so busy working the clerk counter at Lawson Station". In all honesty, Japanese people take the word "hobby" very seriously. Sure, in the US a lot of people are really good at their hobbies and take them seriously...but Japan just brings the whole thing into a new realm. They do hobbies in a way that only the Japanese possibly could.

I think part of the reason for this is that it is so important in the Japanese psyche to belong to a group, and to define your world in communally comprehensible terms. When you start a hobby, like playing an instrument, joining the art club, or joining a sports team, you'll automatically become a member of that group because hobbies are usually done communally, not solo. It gives you a built-in and socially acceptable community to belong to. Moreover, it says something about your personal identity when you tell someone if you have chosen to devote your soul to soccer instead of painting. It helps you establish your position in the community and your personal identity - without breaking the mold, rocking the boat, or singling yourself out, which are all cardinal sins in Japanese society. Japanese schoolchildren abhor being made to do anything alone, like standing up and speaking to a group, or playing a game to try and win for oneself. If you try to make your students play a game, for example, nobody will win if they're playing as individuals. They'll all brainpool and help each other out so as not to have anyone stand out. If you put them in teams of two or more, though, the competition gets FIERCE! Like I'm talking yelling, pounding on tables to encourage teammates, the whole shebang. But this is because in that case, you're playing for your TEAM - not yourself. Being singled out, for positive OR negative reasons, is the absolute worst thing that can happen to a Japanese person. For this reason, Japanese students do almost everything in pairs or teams, and will only do anything solo if given no choice - and then they will do it as quickly, crappily and reluctantly as possible just to get out of the spotlight. By contrast, when working for a common goal, Japanese people would rather die than fail or mess up.

Which brings us to the band concert played by my Yuri Junior High kids this weekend! Like any Japanese person with a hobby, my kids play their instruments at a more or less professional level. They also, in honor of Halloween, proceeded to do this wearing such accoutrements as cat ears, gigantic sparkly hairbows, and headbands adorned with plushie ghosts, pumpkins and so on. The conductor, in fact, entered by running full tilt into the gym wearing a cape, Mickey Mouse hands (the big puffy white gloves), and a huge yellow sequined bow tie. At one point during the show, two girls left the stage and ran around the gym shouting gleefully and flinging handfuls of candy into the audience, shouting something in katakana that I think was intended to be "Happy Halloween". Those of you familiar with Japanese accents can imagine how comprehensible that was... Amazingly, these events were trumped by a random middle school boy's abrupt appearance during one song, waving a plastic sword, as well as various episodes involving lots of Japanese chattering, waving of a cutout of a hand doing janken (rock-paper-scissors), and the random distribution of small prizes. Japanese school band concerts are definitely a little different than American ones...Not to mention that my school band concerts were gallantly suffered through by all attendees, and these kids could probably sell out shows in most cities in the states...

It Never Lives Up to the Hype

2009-10-08T20:07:00.002+09:00

You'll all be glad to know that I am quite safe and sound, due mostly to the fact that Melor ended up amounting to little more than a glorified and slightly breezy rainstorm. Now, if I hadn't gone and dropped tons of money on setting up an emergency kit, the gods would no doubt have laughed in my face and proceeded to blow my roof off. That said, my first typhoon "experience" turned out to be dramatically less than noteworthy. We now return to our regularly scheduled programming, which usually consists of me sitting at a school desk doing nothing for approximately six hours a day.

The Leprechaun Was Insufficient: Japan Brings Greater Insanity Via Typhoon Melor

2009-10-08T00:53:00.004+09:00

Yes, I know it's late and I should be sleeping. But the roar of the first gusts of wind and the clattering of the first driven drops of rain on my windows woke me up, and at the moment there's no calming my nerves. You see, normally I'm not quite so finicky about the weather...but tonight's a little different.

Apparently Japan's last performance review asserted that it was not bringing adequate insanity to my life. Enter Typhoon Melor. Melor, which has at least weakened considerably since its original classification as a Category 5 Super Typhoon, is nonetheless bearing down on the Land of the Rising Sun, and according to current forecasts has its sights set cheerily on Akita once it's done ravaging Tokyo like Godzilla on Viagra. OK, you say, slow down two ticks there girly. What's going on? Well, as you may or may not know already, it's currently typhoon season here in Crazyland. Normally, this would mean approximately jack diddly to me, because Akita is so far north that most of these storms, just like most people, decide it's not worth their bother and give up somewhere slightly north of Tokyo. Not Melor. (Melor, by the way, is the Malay word for "jasmine". What a cute moniker for a 357-mile-wide swatch of rotating tropical storm doom.) This puppy seems absolutely determined to make the trek out here to the rice paddies. In fact, current forecasts are leaning towards the possibility that Melor may ride the pineapple current north in the Sea of Japan, dragging its violent, and recently Japan-Sea-recharged, eye wall right over my house.

Melor is set to cause storm surges upwards of 10 feet in a lot of places, packs plenty of windy punch (and I don't mean it's full of hot air...), and could dump as much as 50 centimeters or more of rain within a twenty-four hour period. Let's just say I could be seriously wet by tomorrow evening, and that isn't a sexual innuendo.

What do I know about typhoons? A lot more now that I did this morning, before I figured out I was about to be caught in one. Another interesting sidenote; the human brain is a funny thing. I'd been skimming news stories about the tropical storm activity wreaking havoc in the Philippines, etc, but in my head somehow this still registered as a Problem On the Other Side of the Planet. It never occurred to me that storm activity raping Manila and Luzon might mean I should check my weather forecast. Next time I'll know better. And won't have to wait until my JTEs ask me if I'm aware that I'm about to be swallowed by a gigantic tropical storm.

So how does one prepare for a typhoon? Well, this being my first time, it's largely guesswork for me. I went shopping and bought lots of bottled water, canned food and dry goods, flashlights, spare batteries, and a radio, just in case the storm knocks out power or other infrastructure. I'll be making sure to crack a couple windows during the storm, to ensure I don't create a vacuum in my house. Hopefully, Melor changes course, or moves north overland instead of over the sea, both possibilities that would reduce the storm's severity for me. I'll be leaving school early tomorrow, if I go in at all, to ensure I'm not driving once Melor hits Akita.

Stay tuned; hopefully my power and internet will remain functional. If not, don't be alarmed if I disappear for a while - either way, keep watching for further updates about my first typhoon experience! Unless I die when Melor sucks the roof off my house and spirits me away to the Japanese version of Oz, which is probably a lot like Hayao Miyazaki's alternate dimension in Spirited Away. Only with Munchkins. And Glinda, I hope. I always wanted to be Glinda when I was a kid.

When Japanese Leprechauns Attack: Seaweed, Squid, Banana Crepes and the Mystery Bag o' Beans

2009-10-07T08:19:00.004+09:00

Yesterday, I was minding my own business, working hard as usual (by that I mean 'surfing the internet' for roughly 6 of the 8 hours in my workday), when I was unexpectedly interrupted by a wizened little Japanese guy who looked about six centuries old and sported eyebrows that were pure white and bore a genuinely disconcerting resemblance to gigantic toothbrushes. This bizarre elfin creature proceeded to force upon me (with utmost courtesy, of course) a small tin of seaweed soaked in soy sauce. I was apparently expected to consume said seaweed, and although slimy oceanic plant material generally doesn't find its way into my diet until after 12:00 noon, good manners more or less dictated that I accept his offer.

The really peculiar thing about this was, this man does not work in my office. He was circulating with a tray of tins of goopy seaweed, serving them to everyone in the teachers' room, and nobody seemed to find this odd...but I had most definitely never seen this man before. Does he work at my school?! I later looked up to discover that this odd little man had done one better than just serving up seaweed - he had co-opted the sitting area by the copier and set up an entire seaweed shop, and was busily hawking his wares to any teacher fool enough to walk near him. Unfortunately, his merchandise was not restricted to seaweed; my olfactory spidey sense shortly informed me that this old goon was also dealing in dried squid, which stank up the entire office in short order. So here we were, with a total stranger parked in our tea corner selling dried sea animals and wet sea plants, sporting eyebrows out of a Pixar movie, and suffocating in the diverse and pungent aromas emanating from his makeshift storefront.

I was the only one who seemed to find this strange.

Shrugging, as I often do in Japan, I moved on without pondering the mystery too much further. In short order, however, when I returned to my desk from doing a few quick errands, more Japanese magic had occurred. There sat upon my desk a plate, a fork, and a heap of banana, whipped cream, crepe and chocolate. What?! Leprechauns with seaweed, and now mysteriously appearing crepes?! If I were in any country other than Japan, I probably would have suspected the crepe to be laced with something that would render me helpless and/or insensate and compliant for transport to the sex trade in Thailand. Since this is Japan, though, drugs were unlikely in my unexpected dessert. Nevertheless, I eyed it suspiciously.

'HOMU-MAKINGU!' shouted a voice disconcertingly close to my ear. I turned to see one of the OLs (office ladies) beaming proudly at me for her use of English - and standing about six centimeters away from me. Japanese and American notions of 'personal space', I have found, differ dramatically. The OL (sweet, wonderful woman that she is, despite yesterday's close-encounters Engrish sneak attack) proceeded to explain in Japanese that the home ec (they call it homemaking) class had made crepes, and wanted me to try their work. Well, at least it was a little more appetizing than a glob of seaweed soaking in fermented soy bean juice. It actually tasted pretty good, and I'm not usually much of a fan of banana OR chocolate, so I guess the kids are doing pretty good work in that home ec class of theirs.

But my day was yet to get slightly more peculiar. The stream of unexpected foodstuffs had not yet run dry - and believe it or not, the combination of foods showered upon me was about to get a little bit stranger. I was typing away, not paying much attention, when suddenly somebody sneak attacked me with a bag of beans. The beans plopped onto my desk, and when I looked behind me, none of the three people standing there idly chatting took responsibility for this unexpected delivery of legumes. I was not the only one so blessed; my seatmate across the desk also received such a parcel, and the two of us were equally confused. Apparently sometimes Japan confounds even its own natives.

A Trip to Hottai Falls!

2009-10-05T20:46:00.003+09:00

This weekend, I went to see Hottai Falls, the tallest waterfall in Akita Prefecture. Getting there was quite an adventure! Armed only with a less-than-detailed map of the general vicinity, some verbal instructions from one of my JTEs, and the intermediate language skills of a couple of bumbling gaijin, a friend and I set off to find the waterfall.

During a stop to get gas in case we got horribly lost (a scenario I deemed reasonably likely...) my traveling companion managed to ask our gas attendants for some more detailed directions. Good on ya! The map and instructions we received were immensely helpful - and one guy even flagged traffic for us to make it easier to hang our right turn back onto the road! So sweet. :-)

Hottai Falls, which as I said is the tallest waterfall in Akita Prefecture, is gorgeous. There is a small restaurant, serving homemade noodles, fish grilled over open charcoal, nabe (hot pot or stew), and a variety of convenience foods like chips, candies, corn dogs, or the option we went with for our snack - sweet potatoes in sesame syrup! The restaurant looks over a large lawn leading to the bridge and short hike up to view the falls. Many elderly people were sitting on the lawn painting pictures of the falls.

It was very beautiful there, and I intend to return later this month for the Hottai Autumn Colors Festival, when the fall leaves will be in full swing and locals will be celebrating with a barbecue bash. Stay tuned!

To see Hottai Falls and the trip thereto, check out the slide show!

Party Time! Famous Festivals in Akita

2009-09-30T20:40:00.010+09:00

Like pretty much anywhere in Japan, Akita has a wide selection of its own, special, local, and in some cases (in)famous celebrations and festivals in addition to the national holidays recognized nationwide. Some of the Akita festivals are especially noteworthy, and they range from the refined and delicate (the beautiful Komachi Festival in late spring), to the unique (summer's awesome Kanto Festival), the ridiculous (the Hinai Chicken Festival in January)...to the downright absurdly violent and dangerous (the winter Takeuchi Festival).

Gannin Dance Festival: Every spring in Hachirogata Town on May 5th, local men dress up as women to perform unique dances and comical skits. Many of the skits are taken from popular kabuki plays. For the Grinnellians in the audience, this is sort of like Mary B. James meets Cinco de Mayo and open mic night at Bob's.

Komachi Festival: As mentioned in the last post, Akita is famous for its beautiful women. Legend has it that the greatest beauty of all time in Japan, Ono-no Komachi, was born in Ogachi Town here in Akita Prefecture. Ono-no Komachi (born 809CE, during Japan's Heian period) was said to be not only beautiful beyond compare, but also a prodigy in dance, koto (Japanese harp), calligraphy, and waka (Japanese poetry). At age 13 she travelled to Kyoto, the center of Japanese culture and politics in Heian times , where she was much acclaimed for her beauty and talents. Every June Ogachi Town holds a festival in her honor, selecting seven young women from the town to dress up in Heian period clothing and recite seven waka in Ono-no Komachi's honor. The women are chosen specially for their beauty and talents in music and poetry.

Sakura Festivals: Like everywhere in Japan, the spring blooming of the cherry trees is much awaited in Akita, and merits hanami, or special trips with friends to go and view the flowers. Akita is special in that, not only does it have the usual pink and white cherry blossoms, it also has yellow cherry trees, which bloom later.

Hinai Chicken Festival: To honor the famous Hinai chickens raised in Akita, people get drunk and do a ritual chicken dance for this festival.

Ushinori-Kumomai Festival: Held in Katagami and Oga every July 7th, this festival celebrates a legend in which a princess and her husband could only be united one day a year. Rather than focusing on this, though, this festival features a very drunk Japanese man riding a bull that hasn't been fed for a week. Evidently, focusing on the sidenote in the story where a god performs a ritual riding a bull around Tenno is more amusing than a Japanified remake of Persephone's tale.

Kanto Festival: Every August in Akita City, the main street is closed to traffic. After dark, teams of performers hoist large bamboo frames hung with flaming paper lanterns. To the sound of drum, flutes and roaring chants and calls from the audience, they balance the poles on their foreheads, hips, single palms, and pass the poles among their teammates. Sometimes as tall as two stories, and weighing over 150 pounds, these poles are no joke! Between all lampposts and street signs over the sidewalk are strung heavy-duty cables, to prevent wayward bamboo frames from squashing bystanders. This festival is to pray for good fortunes in the upcoming Akita rice harvest at the end of summer.

Omagari Fireworks Festival: Every August in Omagari, the top 30 fireworks makers in Japan compete for supremacy at the National Fireworks Championship. The displays are dazzling.

Oyamabayashi Festival: In Kakunodate (the samurai town) in early September, this festival involves elaborate floats driving around the city streets. The culmination of the festival is what amounts to oversized bumper cars, as the floats ram into each other as hard as possible. Yes this is dangerous.

Namahage Festival: Held each winter in Oga City, the Namahage Festival is a Japanese version of Santa Claus. Only instead of promising goodies as a reward for good behavior, swarms of men in elaborate namahage (demon-like creatures of myth) costumes come down from the mountain, in the dark and snow, and storm into houses and try to drag the terrified children out into the cold. The parents usually let this happen until the namahage are juuust about to leave...then intercede, for the promise of good behavior from their children. They then bribe the namahage with sake to leave their children alone. Thus do Japanese children learn that being bad gets you kidnapped, but you can buy off anyone, even the devil, with sake.

Kamakura Festival: Each winter in Yokote, famous for its copious snowfall, a number of kamakura, or igloo-like snow huts, are built. Some are big enough to hold multiple people; some are tiny, built only to house candles. You can go visiting from hut to hut, being served warm rice wine and sweet cakes by that kamakura's host, usually local children.

Naked Man Festival: Every winter, one man in town is chosen to be the Naked Man. This basically means he becomes a symbolic receptacle for every else's sins. He then strips to his birthday suit (and yes it is cold here in Akita that time of year) and runs through the streets, being chased by the other townsmen wearing nothing but loincloths. If you can catch and touch the Naked Man, you transfer your sins and bad luck to him, and will have a fortunate year. He keeps running until he reaches the shrine, where he undergoes an extensive ritual purification to make sure he doesn't die from all the bad luck donated to him by his entourage of naked neighbors. In some places, women and children stand on the sidelines throwing buckets of icewater or whacking the pursuers with bamboo sticks.

Takeuchi Festival: Basically, this is a drunken brawl with the addition of gigantic bamboo poles and a bonfire. Scores of hammered Japanese men gather in teams around a bonfire, grab a bunch of bamboo poles, and proceed to beat the living **** out of each other in three short, violent rounds. Not much more to say about that one.

There are many, many more local festivals throughout the prefecture, but this is a summary of the more interesting and/or bizarre or famous ones!

Here There Be Dragons

2009-09-27T11:44:00.008+09:00

As you may or may not know, depending how dedicated a reader you are and/or how often you talk to me, I live in Honjo, which is in Yurihonjo City in Akita Prefecture. Akita Prefecture is a rural, isolated prefecture in Japan's Tohoku region - the northern end of Honshu, the main island. Akita is at about the same latitude as Vancouver B.C. in Canada. Its summers are hot, averaging well above 80 degrees Fahrenheit, and very humid. Its winters are long, cold, and snowy - the average snowfall in Akita is one of the highest in Japan (though the snow is much deeper inland; towns like mine, on the coast, have considerably milder winters). The prefecture is on the Eastern side of the island, on the Sea of Japan. Before receiving my JET assignment, I had no idea Akita Prefecture existed - much less anything else about it. This is in no small part because Akita is one of the least well-known and least-visited prefectures in the country. Few foreigners ever see it; most Japanese never come here either. The prefecture ranks 6th in the country for its size, but 35th for its population. Like so many rural places in developed countries today, Akita is experiencing a "youth exodus". Despite a long tradition in Japan of people staying close to home and family, many young people are growing up and leaving Akita for the jobs, opportunities and general "scene" in big cities down South, like Tokyo and Osaka.

This is probably because Akita Prefecture is one of the most isolated, least-known backwaters in Japan, possibly in the developed world. If you were putting Akita on a map, you'd more or less shrug and write "here there be dragons" and then move on to worrying about someplace civilized and remotely relevant.

So what's there to know about Akita?

Well, first a few trivia facts about what Akita is "known for". Akita is famous for its rice, Akita komachi, said to be the best rice in all Japan. Due to Akita's far northern location, there is only a single rice harvest a year in the prefecture. Akita is also famous for its beef and milk, though not as famous as the better-known Kobe beef. The Hinai-jidori chicken, believed to be one of the most flavorful and delicious breeds of chicken, is also an Akita product. (As a side note, the chickens are much celebrated here - every year there is a festival in their honor, at which people wear chicken outfits, get plastered, and go around the streets doing a ritual chicken dance.) Also well-known from Akita is the Akita-inu, or Akita dog. The famously loyal Hachi, whose statue now graces Tokyo's Shinjuku station, was an Akita dog sold from this prefecture to a family in Tokyo. Perhaps of great interest to the men and some of the women in the audience, Akita is also famous for its women (Akita bijin), who are consistently ranked by the Japanese as the most beautiful women in all Japan. Akita is also famous for its dialect (ben in Japanese), Akita-ben. Akita-ben is considered one of the most challenging dialects in Japan, and is linguistically unique in that it can be spoken without ever fully opening the mouth. The story goes that Akita-dwellers developed the Akita-ben because of the prefecture's brutal winters, which were so cold that they did not want to open their mouths lest their tongues might freeze.

Industry in Akita is primarily centered around agriculture, mining, forestry and fishing. The Sea of Japan off Akita's coast is rich in numerous fish species, and the area has an abundance of trees that can be harvested for lumber. Paddy fields, in addition to some fruit and vegetable farming, checkerboard the landscape. There is not much in Akita in the way of businesses like telecom, technology, or the automotive industry - it's probably comparable to the economies of places in the US like Wyoming, Montana, Idaho or Iowa.

So what's there to do in Akita? Well, if you like hiking or camping (though Japanese camping is more car camping than wilderness trekking), Akita is a great place. It is home to Lake Tazawa, a caldera lake that is the deepest in Japan (measuring 423 meters deep). Lake Tazawa is famous because of its depth, and also that because of its depth it never freezes, not even during the harsh Akita winters. Legend has it that Tatsuko, a beautiful maiden, drank the lake water in the belief that it would grant her everlasting beauty. Greedily, she drank so much of the water that she angered the goddess Kannon, who turned her into a water dragon as punishment. Then one day, Prince Hachirotaro from a nearby village went fishinge. He caught and ate a fish from one of the streams feeding Lake Tazawa. Suddenly, he developed an unquenchable thirst - he drank the lake waters for thirty-three days without stopping, and so he too was turned into a water dragon. Unable to return home in his condition, he slipped into the lake, where he encountered Tatsuko. They became lovers, and some say that it is the passion from their lovemaking that prevents the lake from freezing in the wintertime. Akita is also home to Lake Towada, the largest caldera lake in Japan. Also in Akita Prefecture is Mount Chokai, called the Fuji of Tohoku because of its classic conical shape. Many people hike Chokai in the summer months, though snow makes it impassable during the deep Akita winters. Near Honjo, where I live, you can visit the Walk of the Thousand Jizo, a short hike along a path lined with 1,000 stone statues clothed in red fabric. The jizo are said the be the guardians of children, in particular children who died before they were born or as infants. You can also see the golden Daibutsu, or giant buddha statue, in Ouchi Town. Kakunodate is also in Akita; it is one of the best-preserved samurai towns in the country, with many samurai houses open to visitors. There are numerous onsens, some of them natural hotsprings, and many are considered among the best in Japan. If you're really into geothermal hotspots, you can visit Hell's Gate, a large and dramatic thermal area.

Akita's history is long, and much of it is also lost in the mists of time. Because of its remote location, Akita remained isolated from the rest of Japan (and therefore free of Japanese governmental recordkeeping, etc) until after 600CE. The people of Akita at this time were largely hunter-gatherers, and lived a quasi-nomadic lifestyle. The first real record of Akita is from 658CE, when the Ezo tribes of the region were conquered by Abe no Hirafu. He built a fort, beginning the Japanese settlement of what is today Akita Prefecture. Roughly seventy years later, a castle was built in what is today Akita City. This would serve as the launch point for the Japanese push even further north, into what are today Aomori and Hokkaido, as they strove to conquer the native tribespeople there. Akita Prefecture has changed management numerous times; perhaps most significant for its current manifestation was the 260 year period it was ruled by the Satake clan under the Tokugawa Shogunate. The Satake clan established the agricultural, forestry, fishing and mining industries that are today still the pillars of Akita's economy. Akita's daimyos were among the last to fall to the Meiji restoration, persisting in the Akita tradition of headstrong independence and fierce isolationism. Eventually, though, the daimyos' hold in Akita weakened, and the Meiji Restoration redrew Akita's borders into what is modern-day Akita Prefecture.

Is the Japanese Educational System Better or Worse Than the American System?

2009-09-24T17:01:00.003+09:00

Like I said in my original post, I teach at three schools; Yuri Elementary, Yuri Junior High, and Yashima Elementary. Of the three, I definitely find Yashima the biggest challenge. Nobody there really speaks English, and as far as I can ascertain, nobody is exactly dying to learn, either. Yuri Elementary and Yuri Junior High are exceptionally motivated and academically-oriented schools, and it shows; moreover, the original principal of Yuri Elementary, a wonderful man named Kinichi Sato (who, though now retired, visits Yuri Elem a few times a month to team teach with me), was a world traveler with a firm conviction that English is crucial to facilitating international education and exchange. As a result, Yuri Elementary is an absolute pinnacle of English achievement. Throughout the school, items and doorways like desks, classrooms, and cubbies are labeled in English. The school has multiple visiting English specialists who are fluent second-tongue speakers, as well as an English-oriented curriculum coordinator. Mr. Sato himself is 100% fluent in English, as is the visiting English specialist, the estimable Mr. Ryosuke Watanabe. Mr. Takano, the curriculum coordinator, speaks fairly well, and Mr. Sugawara, a random teacher at the school, is also 100% fluent. Yuri Elementary kids are clean, bright, energetic, polite, outgoing, motivated and adorable. They can also form sentences in English, and hold simple conversations.

Yuri is a rare, rare diamond twinkling and rising above the butchered English cesspool that is apparently much more normal for elementary schools in Japan.

Yashima is definitely not a diamond in the cesspool, much less above it.

Honestly, to me the whole atmosphere in Yashima is oddly depressing, but that's besides the point. Let's face it; I think the current public education system in America is pretty bad. The system here in Japan is definitely different, so the real question is, which one do I think is better?

Like almost everything here in the Land of the Rising Sun, that's not a simple question. The main thing I can say with certainty here is that the two systems are definitely different - which I guess means that they succeed and fail in different ways. One major strength of the Japanese system is that, unlike the US system, it's not being co-opted as a channel for religious evangelism. Japanese schools are very secular. On the other hand, US schools do encourage individuality, personal identity and free choice - by letting students pick their own classes, say, or having open-format reading assignments where the student can choose their own book for a report. Japan, in contrast, creates a homogenous educational pool. Since there is no such thing as elective courses, and since all students have the same rotation of teachers due to the whole teachers-change-rooms thing, every student at a given school receives exactly the same eduction. This has its advantages; no student, for example, ever has three teachers schedule major projects due on the same day, nor does anyone have a heavier workload than their peers. In effect, these systems reflect the core values of the cultures in which they exist. The US values independence, personal identity, and out-of-the-box thinking. Japan values conformity, social harmony (called wa), and unquestioning obedience to precedence and tradition. "Why?" is a very dangerous question in Japan; in the US, it's something we're expected to ask. To a degree we rarely contemplate at home, the United States is indeed a nation of ferocious individualists. I didn't quite comprehend this until I moved to Japan, to find myself in a country that values conformists as highly as my own values individualists.

Also, the US system is one that is much more inclined toward teaching critical thinking and analytical skills. Not so Japan; though famed for their math achievement, that achievement is the result of the same process by which all information here is imparted; by rote. Japanese teaching doesn't consist of teaching so much as it does of saying things and having the kids repeat it back to you. This results in an amazing wealth of memorized facts and formulas, but little to no ability to think critically or apply that knowledge in any context other than that in which it was originally presented. This, obviously, is not a plus. On the other hand, many American students lack a sufficiently broad base of factual knowledge - also not a plus.

In the end, I think both systems are imperfect, but are shaped by and (more or less) appropriate to the cultures they serve. (I'd like to see changes in both, personally, but I don't run the zoo.) At any rate, being American, I'm always biased to leap toward saying the American way is "better" or "right"....but I'm not sure that's true. If Japan wanted to be more American, then maybe a more American approach to teaching would be right. But for Japan, especially a Japan that is and evidently wants to remain Japanese, the Japanese system with its accompanying strengths and weaknesses seems best suited to producing solid, effective Japanese adults - and the same goes for the American system. American thinking and attitudes are as out of place in Japan as Japanese ones are in America, and I think that's something that's important to come to grips with as an expat here. Schools, I'm finding, do much more than teach us reading and arithmetic. They condition us to become functional adults in the culture we live in - they shape our manners, thinking models, knowledge bases, biases, and worldview. And in that sense, the rote system here - which receives plenty of criticism in the foreign media - is actually pretty darn well suited to the rigidly conformist, communally oriented world in which Japanese adults dwell. To an outsider, it looks boring, unimaginative, stifling, and impractical, but maybe that's because we can only see it through our own (foreign) eyes.

So which system is better, American or Japanese? Both have their advantages and drawbacks, both have flaws, both could probably be improved - but in the end, I think it's a wash. I will say though, that American schools are better for Americans than Japanese schools would be; the same is true in reverse. Better? Worse? No, just different. Though I would definitely not object to less time spent rehashing the humanitarian tragedies inflicted on this nation by mine as seen through the eyes of an old tree. Thank you, New Horizon English Course.

Festivals and Holidays in Japan

2009-09-22T11:04:00.008+09:00

This weekend was the Honjo City Festival, which is celebrated over two days (Saturday and Sunday). The city streets are hung with colorful paper lanterns, and in empty lots stages and floats are set up. The festival is basically like a city-wide block party. On Saturday night, children perform dances and taiko drumming that they've been practicing, and families meet up, eat tasty festival food, watch the performances, and play the usual goldfish-catching and target shooting Japanese festival games. On Sunday, starting pretty dang early in the morning (those taiko drums are LOUD!), teams of people pull the floats through the city streets, playing drums, shakuhachi and shamisen. They stop at various points along the routes so the kids can dance some more, and old men circulate with bamboo flasks and cups, trays of dried squid, and boxes of Popsicles. If you're me, you might get special attention because you're foreign, and find yourself invited to sit/squat with a group of old guys who are very friendly, force-feed you sake and squid, and can't really communicate with you because they only speak Akita-ben ("ben" means dialect, and the Akita one is infamous - it makes regular Japanese look like learning to count to ten). Families mill around chatting, kids play in the streets, and it's generally a very sociable occasion - not unlike the great American block party, only this one goes for two days and involves alcohol at 9am. But, interestingly enough, festivals and holidays are two different things in Japan! Festivals don't qualify as holidays, because you don't get time off from work. Holidays are observed nationally and the whole country shuts down, including the ATMs. (Those close every night, too.) Festivals are usually local, and can be as brief as a single evening or as long as several days. Festivals usually have events to attend, like fireworks displays, dance or musical performances, or parades. Holidays are usually observed privately, with family and friends. Although some holidays, like Girls' Day in the springtime (Hina Matsuri), will feature public displays - in the case of Girls' Day, elaborate displays of traditional dolls with ritual sweets as offerings to the gods for good luck - most holidays won't have any visible public observance other than a lack of postal, banking and ATM service. Curiously enough, unlike the US, most retail businesses and restaurants continue to operate on national holidays. It seems that the Japanese have festivals almost every weekend - if your town isn't having one, there is probably one within an hour or two happening in a neighboring town. In addition to all these local celebrations, Japan also has more national holidays than any other country in the world. They also have a policy that if a normal day falls in between two holidays, the intervening day also becomes a holiday! It's gotten me wondering what role all these celebrations play in the fabric of Japanese society.

Culturally, the Japanese draw very distinct and harsh boundaries between the inner, private world and the outer, public world. Personal life is rarely if ever brought into the office - you may not know your deskmate is seeing anyone, until she takes a week off to go on her honeymoon. Even more so than this sort of public-private division, Japanese are discreet to the point of being secretive about their true thoughts and feelings. In Japanese, this is described as honne, or or true thoughts, and tatamae, which translates as somewhere between "social veneer" and "white lie". The language facilitates this, as most words and sentences are wide open to interpretation - sometimes so much so that the possible interpretations may be direct opposites. Compounded by the fact that directly saying "no" isn't the done thing in Japanese, untangling the intended meaning of a sentence can be tricky enough for a foreigner - and forget wading through to grasp the original feelings or thoughts of the speaker. What does this little linguistic detour have to do with festivals? Well, I've been pondering that myself recently. You see, another Japanese cultural institution that is often shocking to Westerners is their use of alcohol. In the West, Japanese drinking (which, I can hardly deny, is both frequent and copious) seems like a horrible national case of alcoholism. But I think this may be overlooking an important point.

In Japan, there is a belief that "Before alcohol, all are equals". Alcohol levels social barriers and hierarchies that are normally insurmountable - an important release in such a strictly delineated society. Alcohol is the key to the gate when an inferior needs to communicate with a superior, but is normally prohibited from doing so by Japan's rigid status hierarchy. Moreover, what is said over drinks is rarely held against the speaker; it won't be forgotten, so it's not a total get out of jail free card, but when drinking you can say many things in Japan, and to people, that you could never do when NOT drinking. Living in Akita, I have begun to wonder if what looks like alcoholism in the West isn't, in fact, an elaborate social ritual that is important to maintain balance in a distinctly Eastern society. Over drinks, and nowhere else in Japan, can a bit of that internal honne infringe on the external world where, at all other times, tatamae, that uniquely Japanese polite fiction, holds sway.

Godzilla Might Be Real

2009-09-21T10:51:00.002+09:00

Based on the size of Japanese grapes and bread slices, the notion of a giant city-smashing lizard might not be so far-fetched after all. Note hand in photo for scale.

Bronze: Live

2009-09-20T14:51:00.000+09:00

At the Honjo Festival this summer, we caught this group live. Way to rock that sax in a yukata!

Kanto Festival

2009-09-20T13:10:00.000+09:00

This video is from this summer, when I went to Akita City for the Kanto Festival. During Kanto festival, gigantic bamboo frames are hung with paper lanterns. First, participants march down the Kanto Odori street with their bamboo poles, accompanied by floats and musicians. Then, they raise the poles into the air. They balance the poles, lanterns ablaze, on various parts of their bodies - including their hips, chins, foreheads or the palm of a single hand, passing them around among their teammates. The poles are many meters high and can weigh up to 150 pounds. For viewers’ safety, heavy-duty cables are strung between streetlights to ensure that no wayward bamboo poles squash the bystanders.

What Do Our Textbooks Really Teach Us?

2009-09-20T13:09:00.001+09:00

These books are the devil's educational instruments.

When I was in high school, I participated in a homestay exchange in Japan. When it came my turn to host a Japanese exchange student in America, my guest brought with her a bizarre habit that I, and my entire family, have been wondering about ever since. It’s a well-known fact around the world that the Japanese do not wear shoes indoors. Even in many restaurants or workplaces (including my three schools and Board of Education office) you must wear indoor shoes or slippers, leaving your outdoor shoes in the genkan (entryway location for shoe-switcharooing). Despite this, throughout her stay with my family, this Japanese girl INSISTED on wearing her shoes in the house. My family, let it be noted, doesn’t wear shoes in the house. We take ours off and leave them by the door, as evidenced by the Amelda Marcos-worthy heap of footwear adorning our entryway. We could never figure out just why, in light of her cultural background and our obvious habit of removing our footwear, just why this kid refused to take her shoes off.

Now that I have moved to Japan and begun working as an English teacher, I have finally solved the mystery. Its answer is lurking on page 44 of the New Horizon English Course Level 2 book. This particular lesson is about doing a homestay in America, and offers cultural advice and rules. It also states flatly that in America, you must wear your shoes in the house. I have concluded that, thanks to New Horizon English Course, this kid arrived Stateside with the fear of God instilled in her about going sockfooted indoors in America. Because, you know, not tracking dirt through my house on an ongoing basis would most definitely amount to an egregious and offensive cultural sin. God bless the Japanese educational system.

This little gem, however, is far from noteworthy in the context of New Horizon. Along with a few other absurd moments (‘Oh no! My cola!’), the main lesson that most JETs will warn you about - and legitimately so - is Freddy the Leaf. If you’re considering becoming a JET, or already are one, take your senpai’s advice and read Freddy the Leaf before you get into a classroom situation. If your first encounter with the sheer absurdity of a six-page narrative revolving around a neurotic leaf’s struggle to come to grips with death, terminating in his inevitable frost-bitten autumnal demise, comes in front of 30 middle schoolers - trust me, you will lose it right there in front of the class.

Sadly for all of us, Freddy the Leaf is NOT the biggest doozy awaiting you in the treacherous pages of New Horizon. That award most likely has to go to the innocuously-titled ‘A Mother’s Lullaby’. Do not be fooled as I was. When I saw the title, I suspected nothing.

For some reason, my JTE decided that this day, it was appropriate to begin class by springing an impromptu karaoke session on me, sticking me in front of the class with a boom box and making me sing John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’. Why? That three-letter word, friend, should probably just be wiped from your vocabulary in this country. So we finish up with Mr. Lennon and proceed to start the class. Today’s lesson was a reading lesson, the story entitled ‘A Mother’s Lullaby’. I foolishly assumed it had something to do with kids, parents, and maybe bedtime. My JTE asked me to read aloud to the class, as usual, and so I blithely began.

‘A big, old tree stands by a road near the city of Hiroshima.’

I will give you three guesses where this is going.

This entire lesson is about the sad deaths of innocent young children in the holocaust of the Hiroshima bomb. To help the kids follow the story, the teacher put large picture cards up on the board, featuring such glorious images as mushroom clouds and a post-apocalyptic wasteland littered with corpses and scorched, shrapnel-peppered wounded staggering around with blood all over them and bones jabbing out. In the meantime, I’m standing in front of this feel-good picture show repeating words like ‘bomb’, ‘bodies’, ‘burned’, and ‘dying’ for pronunciation practice.

During a quiet moment while the kids were filling in a worksheet, I spoke privately to my JTE off to one side. I told him this lesson was a little awkward for me, as an American (the previous ALT was British), because my country dropped the bomb. I intended this as a gesture of sympathy and understanding. For whatever reason, my JTE interpreted it as a request to turn around and shout ‘Everyone! Attention please! Miss Amanda’s country dropped the bomb on Hiroshima!’.

Sofia Coppola’s choice of movie title to explain Japan could hardly be more apt. And for the icing on the cake? This lesson is really long. It will probably take us four or five class sessions to get through it.

Since beginning to work with New Horizon, I’ve begun reflecting quite seriously on just how many different levels our textbooks influence our thinking, understanding and assumptions about the world around us. From the shoe rule to the presentation and context given to Hiroshima, I think New Horizon is a more powerful tool than just a mediocre English text. I think it is also a means of cultural indoctrination and a reflection, for outsiders, of the internal Japanese mind. On a related note, it will also give you the impression that the Japanese really, really, REALLY like giving moral lessons through stories told by anthropomorphized trees. I have come across no less than three lessons so far featuring the emotions of talking flora.

Machismo, Japanese Style

2009-09-20T13:04:00.000+09:00

This car is a MONSTER by Japanese standards. Also although there is a bumper sticker on the lower right that reads “Mr. Man” (you can’t really see it), I would like to note that the seats have lace and gingham upholstery covers and there are cute fluffy decorations dangling from the rearview mirror. Welcome to the Japanese cultural translation of being a “man’s man”.

Shoppingu: What's It Like to Grocery Shop in Japan?

2009-09-20T12:59:00.000+09:00

This post is not comprehensive, because I was getting even more stares than usual as I went round snapping photos in the supermarket. The camera, if possible, compounded the gaijin effect for rubbernecking. At any rate, hopefully these images give you an idea of what a mundane grocery shopping experience is like in Honjo!

On a related note, I would like to mention how surprised I was that I was surprised at all by Japanese grocery stores. After all, I consider myself a pretty well-versed diner with a broad palate - I like Asian food, I eat it often in the States, I’ve gone shopping at Uwajimaya, I’m a worldly sort of person, right? Wrong. Twenty seconds in a Japanese supermarket in Akita was a wonderful education. It demonstrated to me in short order just exactly how ethnic a diet I actually eat - and the notion that I eat ethnic, friends, is a far cry from my vision of myself as an internationally savvy diner with a broad palate.

As it turns out, I eat an American ethnic diet. What, you might say, is so American about your diet, Amanda? You frequently eat Mexican, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, etc, etc ad nauseum. You’re from a Pacific Rim state; fusion cuisine is what you’re all about.

Yah that’s what I thought too.

…

On my first shopping trip, one of my senpais (a returning JET assigned basically to assist the n00bies; senpai in Japanese means upperclassman, a relationship that in Japanese school culture usually denotes an older student who acts as a mentor and guide for underclassmen) took me to the Takayanagi. Happily I picked up my basket and began shopping.

I thought I had this on lock.

Well, I did successfully acquire spaghetti noodles, some sort of pasta sauce (probably Japanified and therefore wrong, but functional), salt, pepper, eggs, etc. with no difficulties. Then I turned to my senpai.

“Where’s the cereal?” I asked innocently.

He laughed.

Welcome to Japan, kids. The list of foods that are unavailable here is long, but the ones that most surprised me are as follows:

Breakfast cereal. It is ridiculously expensive, and usually the only options are plain, frosted or chocolate frosted cornflakes sold in tiny bags. Forget about your Cheerios, Dorothy, we’re no longer in Kansas.
Bread. The only bread here is THICK, FLUFFY, and WHITER THAN WONDERBREAD. What they make it out of, I do not know. But if you were expecting a choice of wheat or white, never mind oat, twelve grain or rye, good luck.
Deli meat. Ham is the ONLY option. And it’s processed ham, not the sort of sandwich meat I prefer. Moreover, as it turns out, turkey is exceedingly rare in Japan (85% of the Japanese population has never eaten turkey), and beef is too expensive to waste on sandwich meat. So I hope you like ham sandwiches, because turkey or roast beef ain’t a happenin’ thing here.
Salads. In the US, I am a huge fan of those Fresh Express! salad baggies they sell in the grocery store. They do not exist here. Nor, so far as I am aware, do croutons or any sort of standard salad dressing. You can buy pre-made salads in the convenience food section of the store, but they usually consist of 90% cabbage (ick), 5% shredded carrot, cucumber and lettuce crumbs, and 5% something like baby tomatoes, corn, or tuna. And usually they don’t come with dressing. Not exactly your classic Caesar.
Cheese. This one wasn’t really a surprise, but it is weird how easy it is to find “Japanified” cheese - sort of like a white, mild version of American cheese - and how impossible it is to find anything that actually deserves the title of cheese. The French would probably have an aneurysm if they knew. You can buy string cheese, but it only comes in packs of two, they are huge, they are often flavored (think things like “pepper” or “smokey”) and they’re not really like American string cheese.
Potato chips. A whole new spin on you say potato, if you will. Potato chips in Japan taste NOTHING like American potato chips. I have managed to find Pringles, but most of them are in weird flavors like “Beef Kebab”, “Rich Consomme”, and (WTF) “Night Cheese”. As a result, though I was not overly fond of them in the US, the relatively normal-tasting Sour Cream and Onion Pringles (which are available) have become my standby.
Honey roasted peanuts. These are very uncommon here. One store near me sells them, but who knows how long that will last - stocking here seems very erratic. I can never figure out why one day is Canadian Bacon Day, with big slabs of Canadian-style bacon/ham sitting in the meat case, and the next day nothing but tofu skins.

Other Japanese grocery store surprises included:

The price of fruit. Really, this is kind of appalling. Most fruit is sold by the piece, and the prices are pretty steep. For some melons, you can expect to pay as much as 2,000 yen; for peaches, more in the range of 300-500 yen is normal.
The variety of things which I had no IDEA what they were. I thought I was pretty savvy about Asian food, including numerous Uwajimaya shopping trips. Yah, well so much for that one too. Japan specializes in destroying my self-image and my delusions about my own worldliness. I routinely wander past the shelves or coolers full of slimy-looking god-knows-what and remember just how much I don’t belong here.
How CHEAP the fish was! Really, if you like fish, Japan is a good place to be. It makes sense I suppose, though I live in a fruit and vegetable growing area and produce is expensive as all get out, so who knows. I will never understand Japanese pricing or supply chain procedures.
The availability and affordability of “conbini” (convenience) food. It’s not always the healthiest stuff, often being short of protein, vegetables, etc, but onigiri, sandwiches, fried chicken, croquettes, yakitori, and bento sets of sushi, tonkatsu and so on are easily available at any conbini (convenience store) or grocery store for a very affordable price.
Markdown pricing! In Japan, expiration dates come up very quickly because the government is very uptight about preservative use in foods. So, fresh foods are rarely resold the next day. If you go to the supermarket an hour or two before closing, you’ll get some great deals on meat and produce. Since they won’t be resold the next day, they’ll be marked down by 20-50%.
Bagging your own groceries! Most stores in Japan do not bag your items for you. They will ring you up, then return your shopping basket to you with an appropriate number of bags for your items. You will then proceed to the Bagging Station and bag your things yourself. This is true for general merchandise, like filing boxes, dishes and wrenches, as well as for grocery trips.

In short, don’t get too confident about how international you are as a person. Sometimes, 30 seconds in a supermarket is all it takes to realize that you’re just as bound to your own nationality as the next person - and that you can’t escape the tendencies and habits of where you come from.

Some Random Photos

2009-09-20T12:56:00.002+09:00

The street outside the Takayanagi, my local supermarket.
This salt shaker explains a lot about communicating in Japan. But it is on the positive end of the bell curve, mind you. Read the blue label carefully.
This is Yuri Elementary (Yuri Sho), and it is sort of like a big English-learning playground. This school rocks my socks.
This shrine is right outside Yuri Elementary (Yuri Sho). The stairway to the shrine up the hill is REALLY steep!

Not Quite Iambic Pentameter: Amanda's Middle Schoolers Write Poems

2009-09-20T12:56:00.001+09:00

Today, one of the in-class assignments for my Yuri Junior High students was to write a poem. The poem was pre-formatted, a certain number of words per line, and a set number of lines, but the kids each made up their own poem. Some of them were pretty cute!!! The titles are my own invention.

Examples:

“Dolla Dolla Bill”

Money

Very Important

Buying, eating, living

I don’t have it

Sad.

“Treehugger”

For the world

Stop wars

Made peaceful countries

Don’t lose the forest

Absolutely.

“Don’t Stop”

Game

Push push

Push game over

Sad ritray push push

Achieve.

“Zen Master”

Zero

It’s beautiful

One and all

Zero is connecting always

All.

“Notetaking”*

Scrawl

Corner notebook

Born and vanish

Where is vanish scrawl?

Repeat.

*This poem was written by the girl who is my entrant for the upcoming Yurihonjo Speech Contest! She will be reciting a speech about Martin Luther King. She’s pretty awesome.

I hope you found these as charming as I did! My kids are really great, and I love reading the things they write to me. I’m planning to start a weekly optional “Letters with Miss Amanda” program so they can write to me if they feel like it, and I’ll return their letters with corrections and a reply written by me!

Visions of Yuri

2009-09-20T12:53:00.000+09:00

Yuri Junior High School
View of Mt. Chokai over Yuri JHS sports fields
Lots of rice between Yuri and Honjo!
View on my morning commute

Japanese Schools: How Are They Different?

2009-09-20T12:52:00.000+09:00

As Japan continually reminds me, many things that we take for granted in our home countries are very different once we leave our own borders. What do I mean? Well, among numerous other examples, let’s look at Japanese schools.

In the United States, students arrive at school either by school bus or by their own transportation (on foot, by bike, or driven by a family member or themselves). In Japan, many students walk or bike, some are dropped off by parents, and the rest use public transit. The American school bus system is, to my knowledge, rare to non-existent.

In the United States, students move from classroom to classroom for different periods. In Japan, the teachers move from room to room. This system promotes greater class unity, and guarantees uniformity in courseload. In the US system, one kid might be taking basketweaving and another might be taking advanced chemistry. In Japan, students are assigned to a class (ie, 1B, 6A, etc). Each class has a designated room, and at any given period the teacher assigned to that class visits that room. Consequently, there is no concept of elective courses (downside, IMHO)…but on the positive side, no student suffers from having taken a more challenging course load than their peers. All 6A students have the same amount of homework, the same number of class hours, etc. This system has its obvious pros and cons, including things like camaraderie between classmates (pro), equal course load from student to student (pro), lack of educational diversity (con) and total lack of customization or individual choice (con).

In Japan, since teachers move from room to room, they don’t have their own classroom. Instead, there is a “teachers’ room”, where every teacher has their own desk. To enter the teachers’ room, students must announce themselves by knocking, bowing and saying “shitsureshimasu” (basically “excuse me” or “I am intruding”). When leaving, they must bow and say “shitsureshimashita” (again, “excuse me”, or “I have intruded”). They have to say this even if they are coming into the room to do an assigned duty, like collecting interoffice memos or similar tasks.

In Japan, there are no school janitors. At the end of each day, all of the students participate in “cleaning time”. In this way, they are responsible for the caretaking of their own school facilities. As you can imagine, this encourages everyone to be clean and tidy and respectful, from their desk areas to the bathrooms or the lunchroom. In the US messiness vanishes when the janitor comes through; in Japan, the student or the student’s own classmates will have to deal with any mess. There are few messes and no food fights in Japanese schools.

In Japanese elementary schools and junior high schools, students are not permitted to bring their own lunches; moreover, lunches are prepared by the students themselves on a rotating basis. There are no lunch “options” - everyone receives an identical tray of food. (See post on kyushoku.) Lunch is considered an educational time as much as any class, and teachers eat with students to teach good manners, dietary habits and social interactions. It is my personal opinion that this system discourages odd dietary habits like veganism, as well as discouraging wastefulness or eating disorders - at the end of lunch, all diners must line up to empty their trays, and scraping too much food into the waste bucket will be observed by not only teachers and fellow students, but also by the students who actually prepared the meal. This provides a heavy social disincentive to be a picky, excessively light, or otherwise abnormal food consumer. It also sucks if you don’t like the school lunch.

Students are at school ALL THE TIME. Many of them arrive before school starts, most of them stay long after school ends for sports or club activities, and many of them even come to school during breaks or weekends. As a result, most Japanese school teachers work long, hard hours! School in Japan encompasses much more than just book learning; in many ways, it is closer to the US concept of parenting than it is to the US concept of schooling.

Japanese schoolchildren wear uniforms for junior high and high school. Girls wear skirts and boys wear pants and everyone wears identical clothing for their gender, even down to their shoes (both outdoor and indoor), socks, and gym clothes. Girls’ uniforms are sailor-inspired, and boys’ uniforms are based on Prussian military garb. In stark contrast, Japanese elementary schoolers can wear pretty much anything they want to.

In Japan, education is only mandatory through middle school. High school is optional.

These are just a few of the differences that have struck me about Japanese schools compared to American schools! More to follow I’m sure!

Kyushoku: Shall We Runchi?

2009-09-20T12:51:00.004+09:00

Kyushoku - much consternation has this cultural tradition caused me. Kyushoku, or school lunch, is a major social meme in Japan. Kyushoku began originally as a governmental response to mass malnutrition among Japanese children in the post-WWII era. At that point, poverty and malnutrition were rampant, so a government-subsidized lunch program was introduced to combat the issue. Originally, kyushoku consisted of such simple foods as milk (from powdered milk solids), bread, and so on. Today, it is a daily changing menu, prepared by the students themselves on a rotating basis, usually consisting of a soup or salad, a rice or noodle dish with some meat like curry, katsu, or stir fry, a carton of fresh milk, and a dessert - sometimes a sweet like pudding, sometimes a piece of fresh fruit. Kyushoku is considered as much a part of schooling as any class - teachers eat with their students, monitoring their nutritional intake, table manners and socialization. In middle school and elementary school, no students at my schools pack lunch from home - everyone eats the school lunch.

This has actually caused me a bit of consternation. I asked if it would be alright if I packed a bento from home, not being overly fond of cafeteria food in any form. The immediate reaction was NO!…except from my one elementary school where nobody really speaks English. A day later, a wonderful English teacher from my middle school approached me, telling me that the non-English-speaking elementary school was very concerned about the idea of me packing my lunch as all previous ALTs (my job title - Assistant Language Teacher) had eaten school lunch, and would much prefer that I eat school lunch than bring a lunch from home.

Not wanting to cause trouble, I conceded to eat school lunch - which while healthier than American school lunch is still nothing to write home about - and so it was settled.

Or so I thought.

My first day of work, my boss at that school walks up to me and says “So what did you bring in your bento today?” I said I didn’t have one, I was eating school lunch, and he acted horrified.

My reaction: this guy was so opposed to the idea that he called teachers at my other school to tell them exactly HOW much he opposed me packing my own lunch. Now that I have conceded to doing things his way and eating the semi-gross school lunch, he wants to know where my bento is and is acting like it’s a major imposition that I am expecting to eat the school lunch? This is a classic WTF Japan moment. Clearly something here got lost in the cultural translation. Regrettably, I am now apparently committed to an entire year of Japanese cafeteria food. On the upside, it’s quite funny if you think about it. Above is a sample of what my daily luncheon might look like - this one was some kind of meat stir fry with a soft-boiled quail egg over rice, a salad of some sort, and a big slice of watermelon (suika in Japanese). All school lunches are served with milk, and if you eat in the teacher’s room as I do at my elementary school, also usually with hot green tea.

Google kyushoku if you’re curious - it’s certainly an interesting cultural notion that the government has a responsibility to ensure not only the provision of one nutritionally complete and balanced meal a day to every student at a subsidized price, but also that that meal should include adult supervision, student responsibility in preparation, and throughout good manners and responsible cleanup behaviors. The phenomena is directly a result of World War II, so it may be of particular interest to history or sociology buffs.

The Strangeness of Being Away From Home, and Why I Loathe Old Japanese Men

2009-09-20T12:51:00.001+09:00

Sometimes, when you’re living far from home, the strangest things feel like major crises. For example, this week my parents informed me that the family cat (who is closing in on her second decade) was ill. For whatever reason, being so far away, that felt like a real blow. I think there is always some sadness that comes with a pet falling ill, but for whatever reason it’s exacerbated by feeling distinctly like that which is familiar at home is changing beyond your control while you’re abroad. Maybe that’s because even the familiar is unfamiliar in Japan - things like ATMs pose major language study crises, what you buy at the supermarket expecting to be hardboiled eggs turn out to be WATERY, RUNNY softboiled-like eggs, people drive on the wrong (I’m American, give me a break) side of the road, nobody EVER makes eye contact and forget physical contact, if you ask a question probably nobody will understand you and if they do you won’t get a straight answer, familiar foods have been Japan-ified with the addition of things like seaweed, mayonnaise, odd ingredients (the classic example being corn and squid on pizza), or simply by having had their essential flavors (particularly spicy foods, cheesy foods, or foods involving peanut or coconut) modified to suit the mild Japanese palate. I don’t even LIKE spicy food and I’ve been missing it since getting here, that’s how mild everything is.

When you’re planning a move to a foreign country, I think you assume that it’ll be different, but kind of think in the back of your mind, how different could it be, REALLY? And then you get here to Japan and realize that among other things that make you a weirdo here, you also eat a massively ethnic diet because there is no breakfast cereal (people eat rice, miso, natto - a particularly unfortunate culinary invention if I may say so, fish and so forth), no bread other than fluffy, processed white bread, no cold cuts to speak of, no deli cheese, etc and etc.

In particular Japan seems to have made a distinct effort to remain un-globalized, resisting the pull of American media and influences even with access to cable TV and the Internet. Despite these phenomena, Japan remains, amazingly enough, a remote, isolated, and insular nation having little contact with or concept of the world beyond its borders. Although Japan is a modern, first-world and developed nation in almost every way measurable on any kind of graph or index, it is, truthfully, no more open to the world in any significant sense than it was during the years of the Sakoku Edict. The Sakoku Edict famously expelled all foreigners from Japan and sealed the nation’s borders. In some ways it feels like such measures are still in place today - familiar and ubiquitous brands and social norms or memes are absent, all print and visual media is Japanese in origin and presentation, and Japan eschews most foreign celebrities (including Hollywood) in favor of its homegrown talent stars and movie or TV personalities.

Slowly, Japan is opening its doors to the outside world - gestures like waving or shaking hands are becoming more acceptable, though the traditional bow still prevails - but the reality is that coming to Japan with the intent to live and work here is a bit like stepping off a space shuttle onto Mars.

One example is the bizarre Japanese garbage collection system, which I have yet to untangle. This results in me smuggling my garbage out of my house to collection bins under cover of night, hoping to avoid being scolded by angry old Japanese people. For whatever reason, Japanese trash is very carefully sorted into different categories, each of which is only permissible to dispose of certain days of the month. I cannot read my all-Japanese trash collection instruction pamphlet, so I just guess. One day I made the error of attempting to deposit my trash in the light of day. As I was preparing to pedal away on my granny bike, an old man ran up and began digging through the trash bin, removed my bag and began yelling at me in Japanese. It was to say the least uncomfortable, and since I had seen him two nights earlier with a woman I assume to be his wife rifling through the garbage bin with flashlights inspecting the bags, I think he is the self-appointed local Trash Police. At any rate, I now dispose of my garbage after dark, very sneakily.

Another creepy old man episode happened as I left a Lawson Station (convenience store, or conbini in Japanese) after paying my electrical bill (yes, you can pay your bills 24/7 at any convenience store in the country). This old guy was going down the bike rack trying every bike in an effort to find an unlocked one he could rip off. Crazy old goat, mine was locked but he took the unlocked one parked next to it. Who says all Japanese people are polite? Henceforth I am skeptical of all elderly Japanese men, having thus far seen them demonstrate relatively poor manners.

In Which Amanda Sits On A Chair, And Other Main Stage Adventures

2009-09-20T12:48:00.000+09:00

Today was a day of pomp and circumstance; the opening ceremonies, and my welcome ceremony, for this trimester. Now, although I was forewarned that I would need to have a self-introduction prepared (and also that my supervisors would like it if I made my speech in both English and in Japanese), I was NOT forewarned that such common niceties as my family and my hobbies were taboo subjects. I was informed of this as I was walking toward the stage, being told I was not to tell the students any of those sorts of things as they were supposed to ask me in my classes about them. Thanks for the heads-up, guys - I mean really, what else would YOU write about in a self-introduction to elementary school kids than your hometown, your family and your hobbies? So much for that speech. Instead I just rambled a bit in English and sat down. The curriculum coordinator, who had corrected my Japanese in my speech for me in advance and so KNEW WHAT IT WAS ABOUT, then looked at me and said “And now in Japanese?”. Yah right buddy, with thirty seconds to do it on the fly? I’m winging this in ENGLISH now, fat chance I’m making it up in two different languages as I go. I flat refused.

The next school welcoming ceremony saw me sitting alone, on a chair, on an empty stage, while a parade of Japanese people took turns standing in front of me and talking. In addition to the fact that this is sort of awkward by nature, coupled with the fact that I look rather distinctly different than almost everyone in Akita Prefecture, there was yet another compounding factor. All Japanese have similar coloring; they’re all in the Winter palette for coloring, meaning they look good in true white and true black. I however am an Autumn, and do not look good in true white or true black. And so it came to be that I was wearing the only non-neutral tone shirt in the entire school - a vibrant jade green blouse, in fact - sitting on a chair alone on stage under spotlights. Stellar. While I realize this was intended as a welcome ceremony, all I can say is that something got lost in translation between the Japanese phrase used and the intent implied by “welcoming” in the English language. If anything, it felt like an ostracization ceremony, or at the very least a zoo exhibit, as every student and staffer gawked at me on my little chair on stage.

Yet again, thank you Japan for your ever-confounding yet ever impeccably polite “hospitality”!

View from the Yuri Junior High School Teachers' Room

2009-09-20T12:47:00.002+09:00

WhyTFs About Japan, As Previously Seen on GrinnellPlans.com

2009-09-20T12:47:00.001+09:00

In Japan, WhyTF do they…

1) Always back in to park, never frontways?

2) Love mayonnaise but hate cheese? Both are rich and creamy and I think cheese is better!

3) Only pay cash? Even for big things like houses and cars?

4) Close the ATMs?

5) Sell the large and small sizes of food and drink for the same or almost the same price?

6) Always ride bikes, but not have any bikes with gears or shocks?

7) Have so many vending machines everywhere when you can’t eat or drink walking down the street?

8) Take naked communal baths, but think tank tops are super scandalous and slutty?

9) Wear skirts so short you can see their butt cheeks but think tank tops are scandalous and slutty?

10) Deliver mail on Sundays, but close the post office?

11) Sell sashimi-grade, gorgeous marbled salmon fillets for 200yen but charge 2000yen for a melon?

12) Use the post office to take care of banking? Why do you have a bank then?

13) Pioneer the hottest tech gadgets, while running Windows XP and IE 7 on a ten-year old Toshiba brick and thinking that’s normal computing?

14) Eschew religion, but call in the priests to do an exorcism on the house when something bad happens?

15) Pride themselves on subtlety and discretion, then weave all over the road rubbernecking when a white person goes for a jog?

16) Pound beer, sake and liquor like it’s going out of style, but keel over drunk after one glass of real wine?

17) Eat anything and everything that goes round with its back to the sky, frequently with limbs or eyes still on, sometimes still alive…and then get squicked out by peanut butter?

18) Pretend like you can’t understand what time they’re going to pick you up tomorrow, instead using BabelFish, then hand you the phone when the Japanese-only car dealership calls expecting you to arrange the details yourself?

19) Obsess about bathing, and have no bath towels softer than sandpaper or thicker than Kleenex?

More to come, doubtless, as Japan continues to amuse, delight and confound this hapless gaijin.

Some Summer Moments in Akita

2009-09-20T12:43:00.000+09:00

Kanto Festival in Akita City in August
Weirdest Overlake moment of MY life, and that’s saying something. Brett Rawson ‘03 and Amanda Spiegel ‘04, Reunion in Akita Prefecture, Japan. WTF.
The Daibutsu, or Giant Buddha, near Honjo
Next Stop: BFI and Nekobus!
Walk of the Thousand Jizo near Honjo, my home.

Some Images of Tokyo

2009-09-20T12:41:00.001+09:00

A street in Shinjuku...How unlike Akita!

The view from Keio Plaza's 45th floor of the spread of Tokyo below...

And a swanky martini on the 45th floor of the Keio Plaza Hotel in Tokyo!

View from the Yuri Board of Education Office!

2009-09-20T12:39:00.001+09:00

Lexie, my new Honda Life!

2009-09-20T12:38:00.000+09:00

And Into the Twenty-First Century We Go!

2009-09-20T12:37:00.001+09:00

Since I arrived in Japan last month, I have been doing a time-lapse version of man’s advancements over the last several centuries. This process began with the acquisition of a wheeled method of transportation - my bike - after a week of moving on foot only. Gradually, I have continued to come upon technological advancements (such as my keitai, replacing my previous method of smoke signals or in-person visitations) and, finally, the Internet and a motor vehicle.

Japan is indeed a nation of extremes; a good case in point is that today, after a month of no Internet and/or a painfully (ie, longing for 56k…) slow connection on Windows 2000 and IE 7 at the office, I now have a 100mbps fiber optic connection in my apartment. Talk about zero to sixty! At any rate, now that I have emerged from my communicative black hole, I can finally begin to share my experiences.

I am currently an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) with the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) program. I have been imported to - excuse me, placed in - Akita Prefecture, in Japan’s northeastern Tohoku region. Akita Prefecture has a grand total of 4,300 registered foreign residents, of whom 3,000 are Chinese and and additional several hundred are Korean. There are fewer than 500 Americans (right around 400, actually) in the entire Prefecture (or “ken” in Japanese). Akita Prefecture, to give you some scale, is 11,612.22 square kilometers. It is the sixth largest prefecture in Japan, but ranks 35th for total population. Its population density is 95.2 persons per square kilometer, and with only a handful of Caucasians across that whole space, you definitely get noticed around here! Akita is one of the most isolated, traditional regions left in Japan. Natto (disgusting fermented soy bean mash) is considered a popular delicacy, many stores don’t even stock breakfast cereal, and American media whether movies or print is all but unheard of. Oh and if your American bank is Wells Fargo, there is exactly one ATM in the totality of Akita Prefecture where your bank card will work. Not that I’d know from experience, but it’s the 7&I Holdings ATM in the department store next to Akita City Station. Not that I’d know.

Akita is rural enough that there are still some co-ed onsens, or public baths, in this region. You will often see farmers working fields by hand, wearing traditional clothing, as you drive along the roads. The landscape here is of rolling valleys of rice paddies, encroached on by classically Asian mountain peaks cloaked in jungle-like vegetation. Festivals are an important and common part of daily life; both guests and performers will be wearing traditional Japanese clothing for the event, and chowing down on the omnipresent festival foods and beer.

Since arriving, I have learned a few lessons the hard way, and found Japan to be an ever more intriguing, frustrating and amazing place than I would ever have anticipated before I arrived here. More than anything, I believe Japan is a land of seeming contradictions, navigated and balanced by a deeply ingrained cultural sense of harmony and nuance. In Japan, you can pay your utility bills 24/7 at any convenience store (“conbini” in Japanese) - but forget it if you want to do online banking. Nobody here uses credit cards, not even for large purchases like cars or houses. Once you get your Internet installed it will be a 100mbps fiber optic connection, but the process of acquiring it will take weeks, require a lot of Japanese ability, and be anything but straightforward. In the meantime, there are no readily available public hotspots or Internet cafes, so you’re just kind of stranded until you get hooked up at home. As an American, some things here are ridiculously sensible - post delivered on Sundays, 24/7 shops and supermarkets, taxi services to drive your car home for you if you’ve touched even a single drop (the Japanese law is ZERO for alcohol in the blood - even a single sip means you cannot drive). Others, such as the absurd complexities of shakken, road tax, and insurance for obtaining a vehicle, the agonizingly slow process of buying a keitai (cell phone), or the sheer headache of struggling with the pathetically bad Internet connections that seem to be the norm in the office or workplace, will make you want to scream. Furthermore, the lack of credit card use, difficulties of international money exchange in the banking system, and lack of any online customer services seem very confounding to an American among the rice paddies.

As a foreigner moving here, even with your visa, you can’t acquire a cell phone, internet contract, or much of anything else without getting your alien registration card (affectionately known as your gaijin card), a process which can take weeks to complete. In the meantime, you’re left feeling like a five-year-old kid; no phone, no Internet, no car, and not enough literacy to use an ATM (assuming your bank isn’t Wells Fargo because if it is you’re screwed anyway) or read labels in the grocery store! You become wholly dependent on the assistance of others in a way that most of us have probably not experienced since childhood.

As I slowly begin to creep back towards adulthood and independence, I hope you will join me on my voyage through the wilds of Tohoku!

Honjo Summer Dance Festival

2009-09-20T12:36:00.000+09:00

Local people, from the very young to the very old, gather near the City Hall to celebrate summer with music and traditional dances done in the streets. There are many vendors selling food, drinks, shaved ice, masks, toys and Japanese festivals games such as gold-fish catching in the stalls set up in the city park.