Xmas and New Years in Japan, and 2010 review

Hey Everyone!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  I didn’t spend winter holidays in Japan for 2009, so it was nice to spend it in Japan this year and learn more about how the holidays are spent here.  So in this blog I’ll give you a brief intro to the holidays in Japan (based on what little I know) and then try to do a quick lookback at 2010 (particularly the past few months, which I didn’t blog about…sorry!!).  Enjoy!

Christmas:
Christmas in Japan is very different from that in Canada and other countries.  In Canada we spend Christmas with our family, but in Japan it is spent with girlfriends/boyfriends.  Turkey is hard to come by, so it is replaced by chicken, with Kentucky Fried Chicken being the chicken of choice.  It is really popular to eat “Christmas Cake” on Christmas Day.  People order Christmas Cakes way in advance in order for them to be delivered on Christmas Day.  As for similarities, there is a lot of beautiful Christmas lights everywhere (even better than most I’ve seen in Canada!) as well as shopping.  Since Japan is mostly Buddhist/non-religious, Christmas is also mostly a secular holiday in Japan.  Recently, some children have started getting presents for Christmas, like in the West.

New Years:
New Years is way more important than Christmas in Japan, which is the opposite in Canada.  New Years in Japan is spent with family and large meals are eaten (sometimes ordered from restaurants on large platters as take-out, to take a break from cooking).  Children love New Years because they are given a lot of money in red envelopes by their families.  People will write New Years cards for their relatives, friends, coworkers, clients, etc. and give them to the post office much in advance so that the cards are delivered on New Year’s Day.  Certain types of food are eaten on New Years (like soba noodles, ozoni soup, etc.) and there is a particular reason why each one is eaten.

For New Years, Yuki cooked up some delicious ozouni (light soup with mochi, cabbage, and other veggies), fish, and toshikoshi (“entering the new year”?) soba. Also we went to my friend Kyoko’s house to spend New Year’s Day with her family, and she made sashimi from squid and fish which her husband caught, squid tempura, sweet black beans, and chestnuts.  Her son, Takeshi, who I play soccer with, got really drunk and did Jackie Chan impersonations =)  I played card games with the grandchildren and they showed me some crazy DS games =)  So it was fun!

We stayed up to watch the sunrise on New Year’s Day, and it was amazing!  There’s supposed to be some symbolism about the first sunrise – like the sunbeams representing gods’ hands or something.  Also the first sunrise, the first visit to a shrine, and the many firsts of the new year are very important.

I’m sure there’s lots more to be said about New Year’s..but I don’t know that much, and many websites do (so just look if you’re interested!)

Looking back at the latter part of 2010:

(Mt. Inasa, 3rd best night view in Japan!)

Christmas – Yuki and I went to Nagasaki for Christmas.. It was really beautiful!  There are lots of mountains, islands, and scenery.  There was even a place with whirlpools (where the ocean water meets the water from Japan’s inland sea) but we didn’t get a good view.  We went to Huis Ten Bosch, a European-style amusement park which had delicious cheese (!!), chocolate, rose jam, and cake.  We went canoeing, saw a bunch of Christmas lights (including buildings that lit up according to a Michael Jackson song!).  We also ate some famous, delicious food from Nagasaki, like castella (cake), Sasebo burgers, and 豚まん (steamed pork bun).

We spent 3 days there and it ended up being a bit more pricier than expected, but probably less expensive than going to Korea for a week like we planned to do earlier (we cancelled because of the North-South Korea attack, though it didn’t turn out so badly after all..).  So hopefully we can go to Korea, too,when it’s a bit cheaper.

New kid’s in town: One ALT from Usuki finished his contract and a new guy, Michael, started working here.  He’s really cool – he’s travelled around the world, and he taught math in the states – and he’s a good friend to hang out with.  After I came back from Canada in the summer, I helped him a bit to get settled into life in Japan.

Halloween for kids: I helped plan and organize a Halloween party for over 100 kids, full with a haunted house and games.  It was the fifth or sixth year of the event, but it was almost cancelled this year because the organizer from last year left Usuki.  Thanks to a lot of help from many volunteers, we were able to pull it off again this year and it was a blast.

Japanese Presentation: I prepared for and helped with a presentation on how to learn Japanese (for other JETs in Oita).  Despite preparing for awhile, and thinking I had useful stuff to say to the others, it turned out I didn’t know much at all.  The best advice came from others – ie find a drama that you love and watch the same episodes over and over until they are stuck in your head, then practice speaking along with the drama and compare your intonation and pronunciation to that of the drama.

Ajikan concert! I finally got a chance to see Ajikan with Yuki and it was really awesome!

Game Parties! I introduced Yuki and our friend Mariko into board games, and they both seem to enjoy them.  So we had a few parties with my cousin and some good friends in Kumamoto.  We also did a few trips to the Costco in Fukuoka!! =)

Settling in… After spending a year without any furniture in my apartment, I finally picked up a nice bed, dining room table, microwave and such, so it definitely looks and feels more hospitable =)  I haven’t really done any traveling outside of Kyushu, so most of my money has gone into that..and now I’m gonna start saving! =)

Coming up.. My birthday next week, going to the gym, setting up a daily schedule and studying more Japanese/math/teaching, …

Back to Japan, Year#2!

Hey!  It’s hard to believe, but I’ve already started my second year in Japan, teaching, learning, and exploring.  It’s been a busy year, lots has happened, and it’s been great!  I’ll write now about a few cool things that I did in the past couple months, and what I’m looking forward to in the year ahead.

1.  地引き網: Catching tons of fish by dragging a giant net along the ocean floor (Youtube videos to come!)

One of my junior high schools is right by the ocean and has a beautiful view.  I joined about 40 of the school’s students in a local event: jumping into the ocean and catching fish with our bare hands and a giant net.

First, a motor boat carried a large net out to sea.   As it travelled in an arc-like shape, it dropped more and more of the net into the water.  When it came back to shore, two ends of the net were on the shore.  So everyone formed into two teams, and pulled the net into shore, like a giant tug of war game.  We played around in the cool, beautiful water, and it was a blast.  It was a good chance to hang out with some of my students, too!

We got a TON of fish, and a surprising number of squid and blowfish.  The blowfish were cute!

haha, maybe this one doesn’t look so cute, though… =P  There were a lot of fish that even the kids didn’t recognize.

2.  田植え : Rice planting! (pictures to come!)

I joined the same school for a rice planting event!  The school has a plot of land where I have helped them to plant and harvest potatoes before.  This time it was rice.  It was a really cool experience!  In order to plant rice, first you must make a field really really muddy.  They use some machine to dig up dirt and probably also to add water, mix it around or such.  So when we got there, the field had mud that was a foot deep!

Stepping into that foot of mud felt pretty good…trying to walk through dense mud was also fun, though challenging.  A few students fell into the mud  and got covered from head to toe.  Of course, I’m sure some meant to =)  A rope was pulled across the centre of the field, and it had red tick marks on it to mark where to plant each small rice seedling.  We raced to complete a line of plants, before the rope was moved to the next line.  I had fun trying to plant my seeds quickly and then the seeds for the kid beside me, before he could plant his own.

It took 50 students and teachers about an hour to finish seeding the field.  So it’s understandable that many people use machines to plant rice nowadays.

Apparently one seed of rice can yield up to a thousand pieces of rice.  That’s pretty amazing.

3.  Back home

I went back home for almost a couple weeks in July and it was a really great time – I got to meet up with a bunch of friends and family members.  It was a bit hectic though; because everyone is spread between multiple cities (Ottawa, Toronto, Waterloo, Meaford), I spent most of my trip traveling.  It was like I was a tourist in my own country.. on that note, I went to a couple really beautiful places with my Mom’s family:

The Elora Gorge:

(or a very wicked waterfall at the start of it, at least).  We also went to a place called Cyprus Lake, and the area where Lake Huron meets Georgian Bay:

It had a nice beach and beautiful rock faces along the coast.  There was also a cave that you could look into from the shore, but could only enter (easily) by swimming to it.  That was neat too =)  Next time I go I’d like to visit a native American reserve…There are a bunch in the area.

Although I don’t regret going overseas at all, I know that there are usually a ton of interesting things to see in your local area, wherever you are.  I / we have a tendency to always look far away for interesting things, when there are many right at our doorstep….After being in the Waterloo area for so many years, it’s a shame I didn’t go to the Elora Gorge and such places before.

4.  Yufuin English Summer Camp:

Three days of English immersion and fun activities for high school students from Oita Prefecture.  Or, it would have been pure immersion if the organizers hadn’t included guest speakers who gave Japanese speeches, as well as Japanese translations for everything said at ceremonies (some of it was necessary, for schedule changes, to prevent confusion).  But yeah, pretty good time!  I took care of the sports activity with Al, an upper year JET going back home this year.  It was fun times =)  It was a good chance to meet up with other JETs, meet some of the new JETs in Oita this year, and have good talks with students actually eager to learn English.

5. 京都の大文字祭り  Fire festival in Kyoto! (pictures to come)

For the last of my travels, I went to visit my gf Yuki in Osaka.  Despite getting a cold for the entire week I was there, it was a good visit =)  We went to Kyoto for the “Daimonji” festival, where they put multiple fires on mountains to create Japanese characters with the fire.  It was pretty cool to see.  There were five characters, one on each of 5 mountains, but we only saw one.  It was pretty hot, and we heard it was going to be crowded, so we just watched from a restaurant, with air conditioning =)

We saw the other 4 on TV, and it was pretty cool to see them light the multiple fires (each one being a huge bonfire).  As they transferred fire from one bonfire to the next, it looked like the fire was moving on its own (when seen from afar). 

Upcoming this year

My goals for this year are:

1.  See an Ajikan concert…!!  They’re coming to Oita in November!!  =) =)
2.  Go to Tokyo.  I don’t plan to travel around Japan too much, because I want to try and get out of Japan more this year.  I have some friends in Tokyo it would be cool to see though (if they ever answer my emails or fb messages…) and also to go to Akihabara =)
3.  I really wanna go to Korea though!!  It’s so close!  And I have a couple friends there.
4.  I also have some friends in China, so it would be nice to go there, and see the Great Wall.
5.  Dad’s coming during the spring, during the sakura season, tentatively.  So it’ll be fun to show him around.

As for school…one thing I’m really excited about is that I’m hoping to take part more in the math program at one of my junior high schools.  Usually when I go there I only have English for like 2 or 3 out of 5/6 classes, so I have lots of free time.  I’m hoping to use that to visit the math classes, and help out.

I also showed the University of Waterloo math contests to the math teachers there, and they seemed enthusiastic about implementing them in their school!  If some kids are interested, I really wanna help tutor them in math…using English =) If I’m able to get that up and running, it’ll be a good year!

Spring: The season of changes (and…rants…)

Sorry for yet another late*1* blog…I haven’t really been motivated to do much lately.  But more about that later!  (Oh…also I’m not going to Tokyo!  That was a silly April Fool’s joke… I’ll be staying in Usuki until at least August 2011.  After that, I might try to live in Osaka for a year and/or do a Masters and/or teach more..or become a Buddhist monk…I dunno)

(Oh, quick note: I’ll be coming home this summer!!  For about 10 days at the end of July…so hopefully we can meet up either in Toronto/Waterloo/Ottawa!)

Spring is a season of changes, and especially so in Japan.  Of course, there are flowers blossoming and birds chirping*2*.  In late March and early April, beautiful plum and cherry trees blossom in an amazing display of pink and white.  I’d definitely recommend that time as the best time to come to Japan because each place that you go to will be beautiful, the most beautiful it will be all year long.

(this picture is from Usuki…there are much better cherry blossom pictures though!  Just google “sakura+castle” or “sakura+kyoto” or anything really.  The gazillion songs and paintings about sakura in Japanese history attest to their greatness and beauty.)

One big difference between springtime in Canada and Japan is the school year, though.  School starts in April and ends in March.  That means that graduation for schools are in March*3*, well-placed to coincide with when the plum and cherry trees start blossoming, and the new school year and teacher rotations start in April.

That meant that I was with the students graduating from my junior high schools for only about 6 months.  Nonetheless, I got some really cool Thank You cards from the students (like all the other teachers) and that was really nice.  As for the new upper years in my schools, I know them fairly well from last year, and they’re a really cool group.

As for the new teachers…I somehow got blessed / cursed with a young female teacher (like fresh out of university) in each of my schools!!  It’s probably God’s way of laughing at me since I already have a girlfriend…but whatever, it’s always nice to have girls  to talk to who are around my age.. The new English teachers that I’m working with are all really good, too.

I think that I’ve settled fairly well into my teaching role at schools…When I started teaching in schools, I worried a lot about what I was supposed to be doing, my pronunciation and speed of voice, etc.  Now I’ve accepted the fact that my job doesn’t have a clear-cut set of responsibilities, and I can basically do whatever I want to, within limits, because no one else will tell me what to do.  I also have a lot of free time when I don’t have classes, without anything to do, so it’s a good time to study Japanese.    But I am still trying to do my best at my job…Now that I’m more settled in, I’ve tried making more suggestions to the English teachers, especially when it comes to the homework system (which generally sucks in my Junior High Schools) and so that’s my current school project.  Of course I still try to talk to students as much as I can in English, at lunch and during afterschool sports.  I’ve also tried opening up to the teachers more in English, too, whereas before I would use mostly Japanese.

As for the way I talk…It’s like there are some students who will understand much of what I say, or at least try to, but the majority of the students don’t understand anything, even after 1-3 years of English.  A simple question like “How are you?” creates bewilderment, and, with the odd occasion, a delayed lightbulb, “aha!” moment, then “Oh, I’m fine thank you and you?” response.  It’s pretty discouraging, as if being here doesn’t really accomplish anything, anything that I can notice at least.  Talking about other subjects, even how their weekend was, is daunting.*4* It’s always easy to talk about things they like, like “Do you like EXILE?” but yeah, doesn’t get any more exciting.  So I’ve settled on trying to ask about things going on at school on the same day or such.

Outside of school…I’ve decided to start an English conversation class in Usuki, for anyone who wants to join.  I decided this for a few reasons, because I’ve had a few individual requests for meeting and talking English (and it would make more sense and take less of my time if everyone met at the same time), and because it would be nice to accomplish something… There are a lot of people in the city who speak really good English, but don’t have any chances to practice.  So if they were to meet and talk to each other, they could advance a lot quicker.

I’ve also been out drinking and partying with some cool people in Usuki (who want to speak English), so it’s been pretty fun and tiring lately…

I’ve also registered for the JLPT for this summer!  I’ll be one of the first group of people in the world to take (and fail) the new N3 test.  I’m aiming higher than I should in the hopes of motivating myself to study…and it’s also the lowest-level test I can take this summer.  I’m writing a Japanese diary on http://lang-8.com/148112 (check it out-cool site!) and cracking down on kanji practice.  There’s also a pretty cool-looking site called www.edufire.com on which you can teach or study any subject you want….it just doesn’t work out too well since most users are in North America, and online when I’m at school.

Although my Japanese is not too amazing, especially compared to what it could be after nearly a year in Japan (yikes!)…I can express a lot more than I used to be able to before, and I can understand a lot of what other people say.  I’m a step closer to my goal of …. becoming pirate king and getting  One Piece!!  (I mean being able to understand anime without subtitles.  haha, which would include One Piece, of course, which i just got into.  Sorry for the lame joke…I meant it as a reward for you for having read through all this to the end…really.  Take care!)

Notes:

*1*Does being “consistently late” –> “late” becomes “usual timing” –> “late” is really “not late” ?? =)

*2*Spring also means the return of the cockroaches and bugs!! =(

*3*Junior high schools’ graduation is early March and Elementary schools are in late March

*4*Of course, the standard reply is “I played baseball” or such, because students who play sports or do club activities do the exact same thing every day, even on weekends.  Nothing really out of the ordinary happens.

Japanese Staff Rotation System + TOKYO!!

Sorry for not updating this in so long!  BUT, some really good news: starting next Monday, I’M GOING TO BE WORKING IN TOKYO!!  I requested for this a few months ago but honestly had no hope at all of it happening…so I’m a really really lucky (and happy!) JET.  I’ll post better details about my living situation and school later, when I see everything for myself, but it’s going to be a busy week for me.

As for a short explanation as to why this has happened:

Every year in April, at the end of the Japanese school year, something interesting happens in Japanese schools and government (and possibly businesses, too, but I don’t know…): a staff role rotation.  For schools, this means that some lucky and unlucky teachers pack up their bags and start teaching in a new school.  Some teachers go from elementary school to junior high school, and vice-versa.  One of my vice-principals was promoted to principal, but of a different school.  In Usuki’s local government, it is even crazier- people change to completely new roles.  This year my current supervisor, who was working in the Board of Education, was transferred to the Tax Division.

So, during the 2-week-ish long break before the new school year starts, it is a hectic time.  New staff members are coming and going.  Introductions and goodbyes are said repeatedly and, of course, there are a number of greeting/fairwell parties (which are very formal and fairly expensive to attend).  I went to one for one of my junior high schools’ such parties and it was amazing.  People cried, danced, sang, drank…  And for each teacher leaving the school, two other teachers were chosen to read a scroll to remind everyone of things each teacher did well and poorly during their time at the school.  Some teachers did some really bad things and apologized like crazy during the ceremony, but at the same time it was hilarious for everyone.

This whole staff rotation idea is pretty crazy, but overall I think it’s a good way to keep everyone fresh, possibly make better relationships between different schools/departments, and let staff have a better idea of how all aspects of the school system/government work.

And yeah, personally, I’m totally not complaining =)

“Fast Hands Dustin” and a Happy New Year

Happy 2010 everyone!!  This year is a year of the tiger* and so far it has been a mix of great and not-so-great.  On a bad note, I broke my cellphone and had to get a new one.  I had been fooling around, playing soccer on the streets with the phone in my jacket pocket, and it flung out and fell face-first onto the concrete…Surprisingly the phone worked fine despite the screen being very smashed.

On another somewhat sour note, the muffler on my car broke, and replacing it wouldn’t be worth the effort…especially since the car is old and its previous owners have apparently had problems with it.  So for the past month I was looking for a new car and biking to the majority of my schools, some of which are 30 minutes away by bike.  It’s actually been great because I’ve needed the exercise, so I can’t complain.  I just decided on buying a new car, recommended by my supervisor – a 2004 Suzuki Swift, normal car (not K-car, which is a smaller car made for short-range driving), with GPS, and which drives similar to the Honda CRV that I drove back in Canada.  So it’s pretty sweet!  I can’t wait till the paperwork is over so I can drive it!

On good notes- traveling!  I went to Hawaii for xmas/new years and met my family there.  The weather was amazing, the food was delicious, especially the fish, and snorkeling was a great experience.  But I found out that telling my coworkers that I went to Hawaii was a very bad idea…they made a big deal about it, because most of them wouldn’t be able to afford a trip like that.  (I hadn’t really wanted to go because it was expensive, too, but my family really wanted to go,soo….I couldn’t say no!!)

Last weekend I went to Hokkaido with a bunch of other Oita JETs, which was also really great.  (and which I also tried not to tell many coworkers about…)  I went skiing for 2 full days at a really nice ski mountain and soaked in an outdoor onsen afterwards.  We went to the snow festival in Sapporo for one day, which wasn’t too spectacular, but there were some really detailed snow and ice sculptures.  Surprisingly, Hokkaido had even more snow than Canada, even though it was warmer!  We ate a bunch of delicious food, like Gengis Khan (all-you-can-eat lamb and all you can drink beer) at the Sapporo beer factory, and also some crab ramen.  I’ll post pictures later when I get more organized.

Aaaannnndd… I have a girlfriend!!  This is pretty big news, because I haven’t had a girlfriend since high school.  I’ve kept it pretty quiet though, because I didn’t want to make a big deal about it.. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to hide it from many people in Usuki, though, especially since they would see us together.  My students seem pretty happy about it in general, when they ask and find out.  But of course some teachers did make a big deal about it, so I learned a new Japanese expression: “手が早い” or “fast hands”, describing a person who can “get” girlfriends quickly.

We had started going out in late November, but we had been seeing each other as friends for a couple months before that (almost as soon as I came to Japan).  We’ve been spending a ton of time together lately, which is why I haven’t been doing much of anything else lately.  I think we’ve been spending TOO much time together though….so recently I’ve been needing to find ways to escape and spend time alone.

Anyways…she’s nice, strong-willed (she’s from Osaka, and is good at getting what she wants), cuddly, and cute.  She’s also very open with her emotions (different from some Japanese people, and myself..).  Also…she’s Japanese and knows almost no English.  Actually, she hated English and didn’t want to learn it before she met me.  So communication is a bit difficult, but also fun!Ever since I’ve come to Japan, I’ve been able to express myself fairly well with a combination of my 1-year’s study of Japanese and my excellent gestures, which has also worked so far with my gf.  The other direction of communication is a bit harder…My gf uses her electronic dictionary to explain words I don’t know…which works fairly well.  I’m trying to force her to explain things on her own, without the dictionary, which is hard for her.

As for her English…I actually didn’t use any English with her when we started going out.  It was just easier to explain things using Japanese, and she was scared of English.  Recently she’s started feeling left out when I talk in English with family and friends, so I’ve started speaking more in English around her, so she has English listening practice (and it’s good for me, too, because I can relax more and not have to speak Japanese so often…).  She just started serious studying of English a couple days ago.  She has the same problems most Japanese have – pronunciation and lack of confidence.  So we’ll see how that goes!

As for my Japanese…I honestly haven’t been doing serious studying since I came to Japan.  JET gives out monthly textbooks for grammar practice, but I think they aren’t very useful.  They don’t explain things very well, and the vocabulary they introduce are just randomly thrown-in.  And the Kanji book they gave us is organized very strangely, so that very hard kanji are at the front of the book… Anyways, I’ve been too lazy to actually get good study books….  Know any good ones?!!!!

My method of studying has just been like survival studying (for vocabulary at least).  As I run into new situations, I pick up new vocabulary.  As my gf says strange things, for example.  I also try to read as many random fliers, school newsletters, etc. as I can, especially if I’m bored, to try and understand them and learn new vocab.  If I see something interesting, I’ll make note of it.  And I try to repeatedly write the useful kanji from JET’s kanji book, but I usually only do it like once every week, so it’s not that great practice.

Since I’ve come to Japan, my hearing has definitely improved a lot, though.  I can still explain things at the same level, but I can usually take part in more conversations, because of my improved hearing.  I can pick up some of the Usuki ben / Oita ben, too, when I hear something strange.  When I ask people about that, they seem surprised that I could distinguish it.

But anyways…I’ll start some hardcore training in prep for the next JLPT.  がんばります！

PS- I’ve recontracted for JET for 2010/2011…one year is too short.  I’m just getting used to teaching, and getting to know students and teachers, and I think I’ll be able to be more effective in the next school year (and thus enjoy it more).  Hopefully I’ll be able to level up my Japanese more, too.  I don’t think I’ll want to stay more than 3 years (in the JET program at least), so maybe 2-3 years in total in Usuki.  But it’s still early to say.  Anyways…Japan, you’re stuck with me for at least one more year! hahaha

*Note: Apparently I wasn’t born in a year of the tiger (thanks Domo!).  I’m an ox, and last year (year of the ox) was pretty awesome for me (graduating university, going to Europe, and coming to Japan…).  I guess I can’t expect as much this year…though I’m still not sure what I want to accomplish this year.  So I need to define that before I can even know if it’s a good year or not =)

The Angry Osaka Man

On Saturday, one of my JET friends, JET#1, said something interesting: she admires JET#2 because she always acts cool and calm.  JET#2 is different from other JETs, whose behaviour changes a lot; JET#1 hates those people.  My first reaction to this was “Oh, you must really hate me, then”, because my behaviour changes all the time.  I didn’t say anything at the time.

Afterwards, I thought, though, why is that such a bad thing?  I don’t know if it’s fair to expect people to always act the same way.  We are always going to be in different situations in our lives, with different external factors acting on us, and we are always going to be changing, even if slightly.  And if someone is always angry, or always negative, or such, and that person slowly tries to change, then I think that is pretty cool.  For me personally, I’d ideally like to be a fun, positive, energetic and funny person, but I really don’t have the energy to do that all the time.  I barely have the energy or confidence to do that sometimes.  Generally I’m a very quiet and reserved person, but I don’t think it’s healthy to be that type of person 24/7.

The upside to a person always being the same is that you get a good feeling for who that person is.  Maybe you can depend on that person more, or trust them more.  Plus you get more stability in your own life, through them.  What I don’t know is…if that person is having a bad day, does that mean that they should hide it, if that changes who they usually are?  Generally that’s not something you would show to the public, but it is probably something you would show to close friends, even if it’s not your normal self.

This subject reminded me of something else that I wanted to write about, that happened awhile ago… In September, for Silver Week (a string of 3 holidays that resulted in a pretty awesome 5-day weekend), I went to Osaka and Kyoto.  It was nice because I got to sight-see and visit with some Japanese friends and other ALTs and even meet new friends.  The most significant moment was when me and some other ALTs met a very bitter North Korean ranting in the streets of Osaka.

His name was Hideo Asano, and he was a very interesting guy.  He had somehow escaped North Korea, then travelled around the world.  He winded up in Osaka as a poet, looking for money and a job, soliciting for money while promoting his work and warning foreigners about the perils of living in Japan.

[Beginning of his angry rant:]His main message was that he hated Japanese people, and basically the culture that makes Japanese people the way that they are.  He talked about how Japanese people are fake because they put on a smiling face in public which is nothing like how they actually are/feel/believe/etc.  There are a ton of cultural values like politeness, respect, etc. that are basically drilled into kids here from a young age, and kept throughout their lives.  (These values are what make society function smoothly, and are why you can expect the same treatment/good service wherever you go in Japan, or so I would think)  But these values mask individuality, who people really are and what they actually think and feel….”The hearts of Japanese people are actually cold, and dark.  Japanese people have no true friends, you never see Japanese people hanging out at friends’ houses, not because their places are small, but because they have no true friends, etc.”  He especially warned us not to date Japanese women, who will date foreigners for English lessons or money or such, without telling you that.  (His main problem was that he got really close to a Japanese woman, maybe even married, but then they broke up because of some similar problem that he only found out later…)  [End of angry rant]

I think I agreed with him, up to a point, but we all thought that he was just too angry about all this (though it probably had a lot to do with problems he had with his wife).  As for the issue of dating Japanese women, the best response we had was that so long as you both have a realistic idea of why the two of you are dating, and so long as you are both “getting something out of the relationship”, it doesn’t matter what your reasons are.

Anyways….I mentioned this to Koki and he said a very wise thing: people all around the world are the same in this regard- we don’t really show our true emotions to everyone nor do we show our true selves to everyone.  We are all fake, to some degree.  I don’t remember if that’s exactly what he said, but it was something wise along those lines.

For me personally…I think anyone who bothered to really get to know me would probably have a very frustrating and confusing time.  I act differently with each type of person, I am quiet in groups but more talkative with individuals (though I don’t care if they talk a lot more), my emotions usually copy the emotions of those around me while my behaviour tends to balance that of those around me, and I generally try to see the positive side of things, even of things I don’t agree with.  I could probably talk all day about this…but seeing as I don’t know who I really am, I might as well stop here.

And life goes on…

For those of you who have tried to follow this blog regularly, I’m sorry for such infrequent updates.  The last couple of weeks have been brutal in particular, because I caught a cold (for the second time in a month) and have been generally run down and not motivated to do anything.  Actually I have to be very careful not to get sick again, because every time I get sick I have to use up “nenkyu“.  Nenkyu is like a combination of vacation days and sick days, and I only get 20 in a year.  (If you’re extremely sick, you get to use a special type of sick day, called byokyu.  I’m not sure exactly how this works…)

On the bright side, I haven’t caught the swine flu!  People here are worried about it because many students have caught it and many classes/schools have closed down.

As for interesting/exciting things that have happened since late October…

• I helped out with a haunted house for elementary kids in Notsu, a town close to Usuki, but not where I teach any classes.  I had bought a Scream costume the day before, while shopping in Oita City, so I got a chance to try that out.  It scared a bunch of them, and it helped that almost no one had seen the character/Scream movie before.

• I dressed up in the same Scream costume to explain Halloween to 2 of my junior highs.   What I did is I let the Japanese teacher start class, then I walked slowly into the back of the class and towards the front, as everyone was standing up to do introductions.  The reactions were priceless!  Some classes actually screamed in fear, and in one class a girl ran up to her Japanese teacher and asked to be saved.  I made it up to them by giving out candy…

• On the 26th of October was the monthly cheap Onsen day!  I went with one Onsen buddy, but we ended up going late at night and not staying long.  Also that day at school was noteworthy because I managed to do the stupidest/funniest thing in my history of teaching!   We had just finished a warm-up, and one of the students had to do a batsu game aka punishment.  The JTE had written a silly sentence on the board that the student had to say, but he was reluctant to say it.  So I decided to make it more fun by adding gestures, so I jumped!  BUT I didn’t look up first…and I jumped headfirst into a TV!!  The whole class almost died of laughter, laughing for at least 2 minutes, even the other teachers, too.

• I took part in a major festival in Usuki, called Takeyoi matsuri.  Takeyoi is beautiful because there are a ton of bamboo candles lit all over the city.  People first carve designs into the bamboo trees, so it is almost like Halloween!  I helped out with omikoshi: carrying a princess on her wooden throne around town with about 10 other guys.  It was an amazing opportunity and I’m glad I did it, but my shoulders were in pain for a whole week, and I’ve been extremely tired because of that weekend.  I didn’t take any pictures, but I’ll definitely post some (like on Facebook) when I get some off of friends who attended Takeyoi.  The main Takeyoi website is here: http://www.takeyoi.com/ if you want more info and can read Japanese…

• I had lost my International Driver’s License on a road trip about a month ago, which means I am technically not supposed to be driving right now.  Right after losing it, I received a notice about other ALTs who had been driving without their license, got stopped by cops, then had to pay a fine and I think go to prison….So lately I’ve been biking to all my schools, which are mostly under 15 minutes away by bike.  I should be getting a Japanese license next week, which will make things much easier.

• It’s bloody cold here!  I know I shouldn’t be complaining, because it’s much colder in Canada, plus I’ve lived in colder weather.  The major difference is that there is no central heating in buildings here, which is significant.  I guess it basically means I have to wear more clothes to school, and at home.  I also have electric space heaters I can use at night, but I’ve been reluctant to (in order to save electricity until absolutely necessary, and because I’m worried about it being on all night..).  I’ve bought a ton of warm blankets and have been fine so far.

• I started a written/correspondence Japanese course, which has been great!  Not being able to communicate with people here has been my biggest problem.  I’ve started studying a little, but I need to set aside more time for this.  I also want to learn the kanji for Japanese names, so that I can better memorize my students’ names, or at least be able to recognize the names on their desks/uniforms.  My eventual goal is to become fluent enough to watch anime/drama without subtitles, but I’m a far way away from that.  I need to set shorter, achievable goals for the mean time, so that I can get a sense of accomplishing something…
• I’ve slowly started trying to memorize and understand some Japanese songs, mostly so I can sing them at karaoke!  I’ve asked my students what songs and artists they like, and I’ve started listening to that music.  A lot of it is really good stuff!!!  Some kids really like particular bands and get excited when you like them, too.  Many students and people in Japan in general have one or two hobbies that they are very serious about and practice almost exclusively.  So if you say that you also like their hobby, you are almost an instant friend!  For me, someone with many interests, I guess it’s a bit easier to connect to some people…though if you show an interest in wanting to learn about their hobbies, that would work too.
• Anyways, I was at a snack bar and I met a high school student, the daughter of the snack bar owner and who likes a certain band called Tohoshinki.  So she got excited when I said I also like their songs!  Tohoshinki is an amazing Korean band that sings in both Korean and Japanese, and which has made many Japanese people interested in Korea.  A snack bar is a bar with karaoke and also friendly owners/waitresses who will talk with you and even sing karaoke with you (but I think it’s generally more expensive than a regular bar because of that..).  Usuki has tons of them.
• I had gone to that snack bar to meet with the owner (who I had met at my favourite okonomiyaki restaurant in Usuki) and one of her friends (who speaks decent English).  After drinking for awhile at the first bar, we went together to another bar, one that I hadn’t been to before.  It was very nice, with a huge selection of drinks.  And that’s when I got hit on by the owner of the snack bar…a very nice lady who’s also much much older than me!!  She was mostly just very clingy and she kept joking that I was her lover or something.  It was funny because her friend kept mocking her and saying stuff like “You’re not lovers…you’re like his mother and he’s like your son!”  haha that was very true!!  I tried my best not to encourage her, but it was kind of flattering having an older lady do that (it’s not something that happens every day!)

• On the topic of hitting on Japanese girls…who are more or less my own age…so far that’s been pretty unsuccessful =P

• I took a dance lesson with another JET (who goes regularly) and it actually went pretty well!!!  We learned some steps from the Jitterbug and latin dancing, and I managed to pull of part of it =)  I’ve met the instructors, 2 nice ladies, before, and it was nice to see them again.   I’d like to go back, especially since there are a few cute single girls in the class around my age (best reason) and almost no guys, but the classes’ days are pretty inconvenient for me.  So I’m not sure when I’ll be back..
• The students at one of my schools have been practicing for their cultural festival, which takes place in a couple weekends from now.  Each class has to sing a few songs (almost like in a competition with the other classes), make posters, and such.  I’ve had a chance to listen to the classes sing..and these kids are amazing. They have wonderful voices and so listening to a group of them sing together is a great experience.  They have mostly taken popular pop songs and arranged them for a group (like split the song into various male and female parts).
• I stayed after school to practice piano one day and got swarmed by students who loved to play the piano and who were also amazing at it….better than almost any other piano players I’ve known.  It really motivates me to want to practice more and maybe even buy a cheap electric keyboard sometime!
• Oh, I also went to a kendo practice to watch!  It was really intense and involved a ton of screaming and the kids repeatedly hitting each other on the head with sticks.

So, for the most part, life has still been pretty fun.  Hopefully I can get over feeling crappy soon, so I can continue to enjoy it more =)

The Jouzu Attack

A bit of an annoying event last Friday has urged me to expand on what I said in my last blog.  One of the commonly said phrases,  上手／Jouzu／”You are so great”,  is mostly used as a compliment to foreigners, from Japanese people.  Sometimes its used as a way to start conversation when they don’t know what to talk about, almost as an introduction, but sometimes people really overdo it.

Basically what happened is…I went over to the shop owned by this nice old lady, “Obachan1“, who invited me over to give me some omiyage from her trip to Osaka.  I go over, but she’s currently at home getting the omiyage, so I wait in the shop.  There another nice old lady, Obachan2, is sitting.  She often works there while Obachan1 is away, so we start talking.

At some point in the conversation, probably after I made three coherent sentences in Japanese, Obachan2 threw out a congratulatory Jouzu to me.  Fine, thanks.  We keep talking, then Obachan1 got to the shop, along with the omiyage.  We talked for a few minutes, which was mostly spent trying to figure out whether I had a microwave in my apartment, or whether she would have to send me to a friend’s place to heat up the omiyage.  We finally got on the same page, so I got another Jouzu thrown at me.  We talked about Obachan’s daughter for a little bit, and, after overcoming other communication troubles, I got another congratulatory Jouzu.  Then Obachan3, a customer at the shop, joined us.  Literally as an introduction, she got told how Jouzu I am.  The conversation continued for a couple minutes on this topic, with me trying politely to change the subject and, each time, the ladies bringing the subject back.  So then I quickly butted out the door, to desperate squeals of “Jouzu! Jouzu” behind me (ok, I made that up…though I probably tuned them out at that point and don’t care what they were saying!)..

But yeah… It’s nice to be appreciated, and I don’t mind it occasionally, but it was overwhelming when Jouzu was the entire conversation…Usually I try to be modest, and do the proper Japanese response of “iie…mada..”, “No I’m not yet…” and that’s worked fine.  Next time, if they really want an entire conversation centred on how awesome I am, I’ll definitely give them that.  =)  I’ll give them a nice hour-long lecture on how awesome I am, force them to listen to every second of it, THEN give them a quiz about it.

(As annoyed as I was…the omiyage – manju – was amazing.  I also went to a new restaurant afterwards and was treated to a nice night of food, drinks, and karaoke with some newly-made friends…life is good!  I’ve also started a Japanese course, so I’ll be busy studying my butt off…so I can live up to my name!)

“Getting used to” life in Japan

There are a bunch of phrases that Japanese people say to me, and probably other JETs/foreigners too, on a regular basis.  (I’m sure you can add to the list…so please do!)  Some are straighforward, but some are a bit silly.  Some examples are:

• “Oh, your Japanese is amazing!”  (well, 上手！)  Once I just said “Good evening!” (今晩は！) to someone and got that response, which shows how sillily it is used.
• “Do you know how to use chopsticks?”
• “Do you like Japanese food?”/”What do you think of Japan?”/”Are you homesick?” (ok…decent questions..)
• “You have a big nose!!” (ok, probably others aren’t told this…)
• “Are you used to Japan yet?”

The last question has been pretty tough to answer.  I want to say life in Japan is amazing and exciting and I’ll never get used to it…but that’s closer to a preconception I might have had before…since Japan really is not anime land.  Not all of it, at least.  There are many things that I’m not used to, mainly because I’m living in a different culture and a new city.  I’ll never know all the people here, or all the restaurants or places to go, or all the different parts of Japan, but I find out more about these each day.   School life is fun and interesting and a bit different from school in Canada, so it definitely takes getting used to.  My job as an ALT is an interesting one, one that I’d say is pretty unique, and it’s hard to know what exactly my job entails, especially when I work at different schools and with different people; it takes time to get used to.

Japanese is the language of choice where I am, which I think is the hardest part about living here.  I studied Japanese for a year before I came here, and it has helped tremendously, but I’m still far from fluent.  I can express myself in simple ways and sometimes have simple conversations with others, but it’s hard to understand what others say.  My vocabulary is low, and people tend to talk using rapid fire speed.  My hearing has improved quite a bit, though, so that now I can at least distinguish words that people say, even if I don’t know what they mean.  Usually.  It’s a bit harder with men, because of their gruff voices, but if I listen to someone long enough I can understand their unique style of speech.  My big accomplishment lately was having a 30 minute convo with a nice old lady working in a candy shop…we mostly understood each other =)

Not knowing Japanese makes for interesting times, especially when communicating with students, like during recess and after school.  Today I tried asking some girls what clubs are at their school, and the convo turned into a series of hand gestures, me trying to repeat their Japanese back to them and completely failing, and everyone laughing at the situation.  It’s pretty tough, if not impossible, especially because I’m not the best communicator and I’m not going to speak Japanese if I can help it (I’ll translate anything they say that I understand into English, though!)…but that’s what makes it fun.  I guess if you go into a convo with the forewarning that it’s impossible, and just make the most of it, it can be pretty hilarious.

A strange thing: people go walking by my apartment talking/yelling in Japanese and sometimes my mind subconsciously converts the sounds into English, though they’re really not…

Back to getting used to life in Japan…while many things are new, and a bit surprising, I already knew a lot about Japan before I came here.  I knew about and appreciated the food, though I didn’t know all the customs about food, or work, or other things.  I knew about some TV shows and dramas and music artists, though it seems like most people I talk to have different tastes when it comes to this, just like anywhere else.

For the most part, I just take things as they are, and I don’t tend to make a big deal about many things.  C’est moi…

haha I rambled quite a bit, but the basic idea is: I reply to this question by saying that I am getting more used to Japan, bit by bit, every day.

PS-Some parts of Japanese culture I deliberately try to avoid, possibly complicating “getting used to Japan”, like the ridiculously complex (but wonderful) recycling system, the Japanese idea of a toilet (aka hole in the ground), repeatedly saying “thank you” or “excuse me” etc. and etc.

Let’s learn English together! yay!

September was a very busy month for me because school started, sports day and speech contests practices were held almost every day, and I traveled almost every weekend.  I guess I also spent some time at bars, meeting with new Japanese friends, exploring Usuki and its many fine restaurants, and watching Jdramas and spending time online.  But obviously I haven’t been blogging much, soo…

To reflect on school life so far, it’s been pretty decent.  I’ve given self-introductions to almost every class in my junior highs and have also helped with some of their English lessons.  So far this has consisted of mainly “being the English voice” in the classroom, like repeatedly saying scripts out of textbooks, showing flashcards and getting students to repeat words back to me, and such.  I’ve marked some homework and given written feedback to the students, mostly about spelling.  I’ve also spent classtime watching the main teacher and getting a feel for how they teach classes.  I haven’t really known what’s been going on during many of the days, especially when assemblies pop out of thin air and daily schedules magically shorten without me being told.  So I’m getting used to school, and basically going along with everything that happens, because much of it is new to me.  As I get more used to it, I will start adding more of my own input for improving classes and such, and probably my teaching will improve a lot more.

One thing I’ve noticed is that many of the classes in Japan’s junior highs are still teacher-centred, despite the shift in Japan’s English curriculum to focus on oral communication and student-centred learning.  The thing is that this works because the teachers I work with who use this method are amazing people, filled with charisma.    haha I definitely don’t fit this description; I’m a fairly conservative person and not too outgoing when in groups of people.  I’ve realized that one thing I can definitely work on is showing more emotions and having more energy in class – if I do, students will pick up on this and hopefully be more energetic and fun in class, too!

During lunchtimes, I’ve visited almost every class in my junior high schools.  This has been pretty tough for a number of reasons: I don’t usually talk much when I eat, many of my students aren’t particularly outgoing when it comes to speaking English, and I’ve made it a goal not to speak Japanese to my students, if possible…So I smile and nod my head when the lunch time music plays, and I throw in random questions when I can.

The best time is afterlunch recess (considered part of lunchtime in Japan), when I get to go around and bug random students and ask them what they’re doing.  I’ll hang out with whoever wants to hang out, or whoever wants to practice English or ask questions.  I’ve played basketball a few times and that’s been fun!

I haven’t had a chance to go to many clubs after school, because I’ve been helping with speech contest.  From now on, I’d really like to visit all the clubs I can, and also sneak into a kendo practice at some point and participate (maybe once, just to see what it’s like!).  My best afterschool experience lately was when I asked a kid to show me how to play shogi, Japanese chess.  Compared to European chess, and even Chinese chess, it’s pretty complicated!  So in one sitting, I barely learned the basics, and definitely can now appreciate the game.  I’m planning to check out the Go club in Usuki soon, hopefully this weekend.

Oh yeah, elementary schools!!  They’re the best!!  I have had 3 or 4 visits to elementary schools so far, and each of them has been special.  The younger kids have soooo much energy, they go crazy when they see a foreigner, and they are super excited to learn a new language.  They are in a great position to learn a new language, but I don’t see them very often…  Most of my lessons have been self-introductions; I’ve made a standard self-intro that works fairly well with the 4th-6th graders, but I am not quite sure what to do with the younger ones yet.  Other lessons consist of games and activities that the other teachers have planned in advance, and I lead but don’t have to think too hard about.  Because I haven’t done a lot of planning, or even thinking about planning, I don’t know a lot about different games and activities to do with different age groups…so it’s something I have to work on.

Oh yeah, when I say that the kids go crazy, that can mean:
-trying to kancho me, repeatedly (surprisingly and happily, this has only happened on one day so far..!!)
-tugging on my arm, and following me everywhere I go
-jumping on my back
-asking for my autograph
etc.

I taught one class today “cute” and after class a couple girls came up to me and said I am cute… awwww =)

The worst things kids do, they do to each other, though.  If you leave them alone for like 5 seconds, they will attack each other, pile on each other, etc.  without even realizing/caring that they’re hurting each other.  I really don’t know how the teachers handle this…usually it doesn’t seem like a big deal to them, until someone gets hurt…

As for other excitement…tomorrow I’m going on a date!!  Maybe not an official date, but I’ll call it that.  I’ve met the (Japanese) girl a few times, at bars and karaoke and she’s pretty nice.  She’s not super cute, but, as I’ve discussed with a couple other guys, I’ve found out that most of the girls in Japan really aren’t that cute!  (I totally should have stayed in Canada…what was I thinking?!?!)  We have had fun together so far, and she seems to like me (though whether it’s mainly because I’m a foreigner, I don’t know, and whether she realizes it or not, I don’t know)…so we’ll see how that goes =)