Work Parties:
Work parties are an important part of Japanese culture, and offer all employees the chance to interact outside of the workplace, and loosen up on the rigid constraints of the office hierarchy, and general “workplace interactions” which are typically extremely formal, and polite. When a new employee arrives, it is customary to have a “welcome party” to initiate them, so that they can officially become one of the group. While I have six schools, I only visit the elementary schools twice a month, so I only had welcome parties at my two Jr high schools.
My main school, “Kitakata daisan chugako” or “Kitakata 3rd Jr High” is my biggest school, and has the largest staff. I was instructed to meet my co-workers at 7pm, at a local restaurant/bar near my apartment. When I arrived, the entire staff was already present, and sitting in an upstairs room. I was greeted to a round of generous applause when I entered, along with a large banner across the doorway welcoming me to the school. I was seated in the middle position of a long table (accommodating around 25) next to the principal (the seat of honor, as I had read in the JET handbook). The entire staff was presented with beer, or other alcoholic drinks and I was asked to give a speech, and a campai! I should have been prepared for this, however, I had forgotten to prepare any kind of notes, so I stumbled through a few awkward sentences about how everyone was so welcoming and nice. When I couldn't think of anything else to say, I just shouted “campai” (cheers) and that was good enough. We were then served several dishes, all of which were very good, although the principal warned me against the sashimi (sliced raw fish) because it was “crap” and not the good stuff that he buys from tokyo. I had not spoken to my principal much since I had arrived, however, he was very talkative and funny. He seems to have taken me under his wing, since he has a son of the same age who is a new teacher in Tokyo. Other members of the staff opened up quite a bit from their formal workplace selves. Several of the women who hardly speak a word at school, were quite talkative, and animated.
The “enkai” lasted about two hours, after which several of the staff said their goodbyes and left for home. The remaining staff held a short meeting after which it was decided that we would have a (ni gikai) 2nd party at a nearby kareoke bar. Several staff members were quite drunk by this time, including one teacher who had travelled to the United States several times. He kept shouting “Lets go to Vegas and gambaru!!! (gamble). Drink beeru! Geto hangova!!”
At the Kareoke bar, we sang various Japanese songs that I did not know, as well as some Beatles songs that I did not know. As it turns out the Beatles are the latest big hit in Japan, as well as Oasis (you know that song “Tooday was gonna be the day but they'll never throw it back to youoooo. By now ya shoulda somehow realized what ya gotta doooo” not a bad song except for the singer's nasal voice), and the Carpenters? (I think) which is some band I have never heard of from the USA. Anyways, we sang some songs. It was fun. The drunk teacher was passed out in his chair within 20 minutes of us arriving. This was actually a main source of entertainment at the ni gikai, as other teachers around him began balancing random items from the table on his face and body. The other source of entertainment came from the food that was brought out by the restaurant staff. One of the teachers had ordered a big plate of sushi, but it was part of a “batsu” game (literal meaning X, but it was kind of like russian roulette with food). Within the platter of sushi, there were three pieces that were filled with wasabi. We each selected a piece, and ate it at the same time, and watched to see who had the wasabi filled roll. We played three times, and I lucked out and never got the wasabi, but it was funny to watch the expressions of those who did. We stayed at this second bar for about 2 hours and I made my way back home around midnight.
My second enkai followed much of the same format as the first. We were actually at the same restaurant by chance, (my town isn't thaat small) and in the same large upstairs room. This Jr high, “Kaihoku” is much smaller than Sanchu, and only has about 10 staff. I was again seated next to the principal in the middle position, and the night carried on much the same as it had during the Sanchu enkai. For the nigikai, the principal and a few other teachers decided to go to a local bar down the street. It had a very local feel to it, and one got the feeling that it served the same regulars on a nightly basis. The bartenders as well as the patrons were clearly surprised when a foreigner walked through the door. My principal informed me that this bar had been the birthplace of his father and that he himself had been raised in the basement, sustaining himself on old beer nuts, and dead rats. We spent the remainder of that evening the bar, where I was served primarily hard liquor and sake on the rocks. Ugh.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Random funny things so far:
Cowpiss: There is a popular sports drink called calpis which when pronounced sounds like cowpiss....
Hospital: I have confused a few Japanese people when telling them I need to go to the Board of Education or BOE for short. BOE sounds like the Japanese word for hospital (biyouin).
Foodo: The food over here is great with a few notable exceptions: Natto (fermented soy beans) and breakfast in general. Rice for breakfast is ok, but miso soup and large mushrooms and tomato (severed to eat like an apple or pear) is not what I want to eat 10 minutes after I roll out of bed.
Police: The police cars here have lights that are always on. This is quite nice, since it makes them unable to sneak up on you or catch you otherwise unaware. I'm not sure how they pull people over though....
Garbage sorting: The garbage and recycling here suuucks! Everything has its own separate pick-up day, and everything from hard-plastics, soft-plastics, burnable garbage, un-burnable garbage, tin cans, plastic bottles, glass bottles, paper, and cardboard must sorted and separated. While the sorting is a pain in the neck, the pick up days for some recycling items are only once a month, so if you miss it, then you have a load of rubbish cluttering up your place for yet another month.
Funny tubby Japanese guy that comes to all of my schools for unknown reason: Yes, there is this funny guy who I have seen at all of my schools at random days and times. You would probably laugh out loud at the way this guy acts. He takes the formal polite Japanese workplace etiquette to the absolute extreme, and on any given occasion can be found literally grovelling on the floor asking teachers to fill out some form, or some other seemingly small request. It is quite entertaining to watch actually, and the teachers do not seem put off by his act.
Cowpiss: There is a popular sports drink called calpis which when pronounced sounds like cowpiss....
Hospital: I have confused a few Japanese people when telling them I need to go to the Board of Education or BOE for short. BOE sounds like the Japanese word for hospital (biyouin).
Foodo: The food over here is great with a few notable exceptions: Natto (fermented soy beans) and breakfast in general. Rice for breakfast is ok, but miso soup and large mushrooms and tomato (severed to eat like an apple or pear) is not what I want to eat 10 minutes after I roll out of bed.
Police: The police cars here have lights that are always on. This is quite nice, since it makes them unable to sneak up on you or catch you otherwise unaware. I'm not sure how they pull people over though....
Garbage sorting: The garbage and recycling here suuucks! Everything has its own separate pick-up day, and everything from hard-plastics, soft-plastics, burnable garbage, un-burnable garbage, tin cans, plastic bottles, glass bottles, paper, and cardboard must sorted and separated. While the sorting is a pain in the neck, the pick up days for some recycling items are only once a month, so if you miss it, then you have a load of rubbish cluttering up your place for yet another month.
Funny tubby Japanese guy that comes to all of my schools for unknown reason: Yes, there is this funny guy who I have seen at all of my schools at random days and times. You would probably laugh out loud at the way this guy acts. He takes the formal polite Japanese workplace etiquette to the absolute extreme, and on any given occasion can be found literally grovelling on the floor asking teachers to fill out some form, or some other seemingly small request. It is quite entertaining to watch actually, and the teachers do not seem put off by his act.
Silver week:
This past week was silver week (9/19-23), a nice 5 day holiday for no apparent reason. Many Japanese people take this time to visit relatives and travel to shrines and other small villages throughout Japan. I had no plans for travel, so I hung out with the other JETs from the area who had also stayed around. On Saturday, I made my first visit to lake Inawashiro which is the 3rd largest lake in Japan, and the birthplace of Hedo Neguchi, the famous Japanese physician (discovered the cure for syphilis, and researched snake venom) and face of the 1000 yen bill (this guy is the entire area's claim to fame, the locals are always asking if I know about him). The lake is about an hour's drive from my apartment, and is huge.(difficult to see across lengthwise) From the lake one can see a quite stunning view of Mt Bandai (which I cannot show you b/c I forgot my camera haha Andrea!) The trip to the lake was actually a JET organized event/ BBQ, and we arrived to an interesting scene. The guys who had organized it chose a pretty cool spot on a beach head, with surrounding trees and a little island. They had also set up turntables and had a DJ bumping high-speed rave-techno beats at full blast...at 2pm. The lake was fine though, and we met some cool people from the area.
From the lake, I got a ride with a few friends to to Fukushima city where I stayed at my “super sempai's” house (he has been in Japan for like 5 years) Fukushima is the largest city in Fukushima the prefecture, so we spent the night wandering around, going to various bars and such. The next day, we went to Japanese Denny's for breakfast and ate rice omlette things. They were good. It was a very nice day, but it was already around 3pm by the time we left for the river, due to the excesses of the night before. “A 20 minute drive” was actually around an hour, so by the time we got there, the sun was beginning to set behind the large mountain range that surrounded us. The river was a ways out of the city, and was a really interesting place to explore. The river had cut through a series of jagged rocks that were mostly flat on top, and therefore negotiable. This also meant that there were plenty of places to jump in from, which was a lot of fun since it was a warm day. I had made the trip with two other guys who knew the area. We were enjoying jumping into the river late in the afternoon when two highly intoxicated Japanese men accosted (maybe too strong a word, since they were friendly) us. They began by stripping down to their underwear and jumping in after us. Then, after much mooning and drunken banter, gave me the nickname of “Tom Cruise” and my scottish friend “Wayne Rooney” (whom he actually does resemble in hair color and coverage). They were quite excited and animated, and seemed fascinated that we were foreigners. It was actually a bit uncomfortable having them so interested in us for no other reason than that we were foreign, but thats how it is when you are in the overwhelming minority I suppose....On our way back from the river, we happened upon a "fertility shrine" on the side of the road, that consisted of numerous wooden phallus carvings. No real story to this, it was just weird to find a bunch of giant wooden penises on the side of the road....
On Tuesday of silver week (Sept 22) there was an Obon festival in Wakamatsu, along with a dinner party for JETs in the area. Several people, myself included were having our birthdays that week, so the dinner party doubled as a joint birthday party. When I arrived at the restaurant, I was surprised to find around 40 people (mostly JETs) there. The event had been organized by a Japanese friend who had invited us all out, and then to a party at his house. The food was an all new experience for me, as several platters of fresh raw fish were brought out. The dishes were elegantly crafted, and offered various types of sashimi (sliced raw fish...not too bad actually). The middle of each dish was elevated, and in the centerpiece was a whole fish, cut so that its head and tail stuck out of some kind of top dressing. While the presentation was appealing, the food instantly became less appetizing when it became apparent that all the centerpiece fish were still alive. While they were not flopping about the table, they would frequently go into small scale body spasms, flapping their tails, and opening their mouth and gills.
After leaving the restaurant, most of the group walked a few blocks to the main strip in Wakamatsu where the Obon festival was taking place. The “festival” was essentially a huge line dance that went on for several blocks creating a long oval shape. The dancers all moved in uniosn to a high-pitched song about Mt. Bandai that was on repeat over loudspeakers. I had actually participated in a smaller Obon festival in Kitakata already, so I jumped into the line, since I already knew the dance (its very easy) A complete circle around the entire festival took about 45 minutes. Several other JETs joined and it was a pretty fun time. The rest of the night was spent in and around Wakamatsu, and then my Japanese friend's house, as he had invited our group over to hang out at his place afterwards.
This past week was silver week (9/19-23), a nice 5 day holiday for no apparent reason. Many Japanese people take this time to visit relatives and travel to shrines and other small villages throughout Japan. I had no plans for travel, so I hung out with the other JETs from the area who had also stayed around. On Saturday, I made my first visit to lake Inawashiro which is the 3rd largest lake in Japan, and the birthplace of Hedo Neguchi, the famous Japanese physician (discovered the cure for syphilis, and researched snake venom) and face of the 1000 yen bill (this guy is the entire area's claim to fame, the locals are always asking if I know about him). The lake is about an hour's drive from my apartment, and is huge.(difficult to see across lengthwise) From the lake one can see a quite stunning view of Mt Bandai (which I cannot show you b/c I forgot my camera haha Andrea!) The trip to the lake was actually a JET organized event/ BBQ, and we arrived to an interesting scene. The guys who had organized it chose a pretty cool spot on a beach head, with surrounding trees and a little island. They had also set up turntables and had a DJ bumping high-speed rave-techno beats at full blast...at 2pm. The lake was fine though, and we met some cool people from the area.
From the lake, I got a ride with a few friends to to Fukushima city where I stayed at my “super sempai's” house (he has been in Japan for like 5 years) Fukushima is the largest city in Fukushima the prefecture, so we spent the night wandering around, going to various bars and such. The next day, we went to Japanese Denny's for breakfast and ate rice omlette things. They were good. It was a very nice day, but it was already around 3pm by the time we left for the river, due to the excesses of the night before. “A 20 minute drive” was actually around an hour, so by the time we got there, the sun was beginning to set behind the large mountain range that surrounded us. The river was a ways out of the city, and was a really interesting place to explore. The river had cut through a series of jagged rocks that were mostly flat on top, and therefore negotiable. This also meant that there were plenty of places to jump in from, which was a lot of fun since it was a warm day. I had made the trip with two other guys who knew the area. We were enjoying jumping into the river late in the afternoon when two highly intoxicated Japanese men accosted (maybe too strong a word, since they were friendly) us. They began by stripping down to their underwear and jumping in after us. Then, after much mooning and drunken banter, gave me the nickname of “Tom Cruise” and my scottish friend “Wayne Rooney” (whom he actually does resemble in hair color and coverage). They were quite excited and animated, and seemed fascinated that we were foreigners. It was actually a bit uncomfortable having them so interested in us for no other reason than that we were foreign, but thats how it is when you are in the overwhelming minority I suppose....On our way back from the river, we happened upon a "fertility shrine" on the side of the road, that consisted of numerous wooden phallus carvings. No real story to this, it was just weird to find a bunch of giant wooden penises on the side of the road....
On Tuesday of silver week (Sept 22) there was an Obon festival in Wakamatsu, along with a dinner party for JETs in the area. Several people, myself included were having our birthdays that week, so the dinner party doubled as a joint birthday party. When I arrived at the restaurant, I was surprised to find around 40 people (mostly JETs) there. The event had been organized by a Japanese friend who had invited us all out, and then to a party at his house. The food was an all new experience for me, as several platters of fresh raw fish were brought out. The dishes were elegantly crafted, and offered various types of sashimi (sliced raw fish...not too bad actually). The middle of each dish was elevated, and in the centerpiece was a whole fish, cut so that its head and tail stuck out of some kind of top dressing. While the presentation was appealing, the food instantly became less appetizing when it became apparent that all the centerpiece fish were still alive. While they were not flopping about the table, they would frequently go into small scale body spasms, flapping their tails, and opening their mouth and gills.
After leaving the restaurant, most of the group walked a few blocks to the main strip in Wakamatsu where the Obon festival was taking place. The “festival” was essentially a huge line dance that went on for several blocks creating a long oval shape. The dancers all moved in uniosn to a high-pitched song about Mt. Bandai that was on repeat over loudspeakers. I had actually participated in a smaller Obon festival in Kitakata already, so I jumped into the line, since I already knew the dance (its very easy) A complete circle around the entire festival took about 45 minutes. Several other JETs joined and it was a pretty fun time. The rest of the night was spent in and around Wakamatsu, and then my Japanese friend's house, as he had invited our group over to hang out at his place afterwards.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Random Thoughts on Schools and Speech Contest
I have 6 schools, 2 junior highs (grades 7-9) and 4 elementary schools (1-6).
I started going to my jr high schools about 2 ½ weeks after I arrived in late august. Summer break did not end until September 1st, but many students had club activities and classes during the break. My first teaching task was to assist the speech contest students with their speeches. The speech contest is held every year during the opening week of school. I had several kids from both of my middle schools participating, and each day during the last week of summer break, I went in and worked with them on their speeches. There were three different categories of speeches. Some students chose to do original speeches that they would write themselves with the assistance of a JTE and/or ALT. Other students chose textbook dialogues that they would recite, while all first year students were entered into a skit competition that could be either original or previously written. The main problem I found with the speech competition was that I began working with the students only 1 week before they were scheduled for the competition. This would not have really been an issue, however, the originally written speeches were written in such poor english that I was left trying to help the students revise their speech that they had already spent all summer trying to memorize. This was compounded by the fact that the deadline for sending in the finalized speeches to the contest administrators had already passed. Therefore I could only make changes to the most glaring errors.
Some excerpts:
" I smile. I like smiling. Would you smile with me? Lets smile together to become happy."
"Yes, by now you have all discovered that I am a maniac. Each day I love my favorite characters with passion. I am afraid that I will become a dangerous person."
These were probably the funnier errors, but most were tense related, or just plain word choice related, which left me wondering what exactly my predecessor had been doing all summer....
The speech contest kiddies were really great though! They all had enthusiasm for their speeches, and would come into school early, or sometimes late so that I could help them. The main issue was pronunciation, and intonation, but most kids had their speeches memorized by the time I started helping them.
The speech contest itself was during the first week of school in September. All the students entered in the contest got the day off of school to give their speeches in front of the judges, audience, other teachers and students. The contest took place at Kitakata plaza in a room about the size of a smaller school auditorium. A few other JETs from the area were present, and it was a contest between us too, to see who's kids did the best. The day was quite boring, with many kids reciting the same stupid “limelight” speech. ( I had two girls doing that one...) Other speeches were just plain depressing or weird (one about suicide, and one by my kid about anime obsession). All the ALTs sat together during the speeches, and I felt rude at times when we all would be stifling giggles when a student would make an unfortunate mispronunciation. (robber=lover or clapping=crapping)
My kids didn't end up doing all that well. I was somewhat disappointed, since my best student got psyched out and didn't perform her speech as well as she could have. Some of my other students, I felt were at least as good as the 3rd or honorable mention winners. In the end, I felt it was the content of the speeches, combined with some poor delivery that did my students in. One girl in particular had a very repetitive speech about smiling. (excerpts above! The text was about a page and a half, but could have been summed up in about 4 sentences) She had quite good pronunciation, however, when she delivered it during the contest, she was just bit too intense. She was practically yelling at the audience! (smile dammit!!!)
I have 6 schools, 2 junior highs (grades 7-9) and 4 elementary schools (1-6).
I started going to my jr high schools about 2 ½ weeks after I arrived in late august. Summer break did not end until September 1st, but many students had club activities and classes during the break. My first teaching task was to assist the speech contest students with their speeches. The speech contest is held every year during the opening week of school. I had several kids from both of my middle schools participating, and each day during the last week of summer break, I went in and worked with them on their speeches. There were three different categories of speeches. Some students chose to do original speeches that they would write themselves with the assistance of a JTE and/or ALT. Other students chose textbook dialogues that they would recite, while all first year students were entered into a skit competition that could be either original or previously written. The main problem I found with the speech competition was that I began working with the students only 1 week before they were scheduled for the competition. This would not have really been an issue, however, the originally written speeches were written in such poor english that I was left trying to help the students revise their speech that they had already spent all summer trying to memorize. This was compounded by the fact that the deadline for sending in the finalized speeches to the contest administrators had already passed. Therefore I could only make changes to the most glaring errors.
Some excerpts:
" I smile. I like smiling. Would you smile with me? Lets smile together to become happy."
"Yes, by now you have all discovered that I am a maniac. Each day I love my favorite characters with passion. I am afraid that I will become a dangerous person."
These were probably the funnier errors, but most were tense related, or just plain word choice related, which left me wondering what exactly my predecessor had been doing all summer....
The speech contest kiddies were really great though! They all had enthusiasm for their speeches, and would come into school early, or sometimes late so that I could help them. The main issue was pronunciation, and intonation, but most kids had their speeches memorized by the time I started helping them.
The speech contest itself was during the first week of school in September. All the students entered in the contest got the day off of school to give their speeches in front of the judges, audience, other teachers and students. The contest took place at Kitakata plaza in a room about the size of a smaller school auditorium. A few other JETs from the area were present, and it was a contest between us too, to see who's kids did the best. The day was quite boring, with many kids reciting the same stupid “limelight” speech. ( I had two girls doing that one...) Other speeches were just plain depressing or weird (one about suicide, and one by my kid about anime obsession). All the ALTs sat together during the speeches, and I felt rude at times when we all would be stifling giggles when a student would make an unfortunate mispronunciation. (robber=lover or clapping=crapping)
My kids didn't end up doing all that well. I was somewhat disappointed, since my best student got psyched out and didn't perform her speech as well as she could have. Some of my other students, I felt were at least as good as the 3rd or honorable mention winners. In the end, I felt it was the content of the speeches, combined with some poor delivery that did my students in. One girl in particular had a very repetitive speech about smiling. (excerpts above! The text was about a page and a half, but could have been summed up in about 4 sentences) She had quite good pronunciation, however, when she delivered it during the contest, she was just bit too intense. She was practically yelling at the audience! (smile dammit!!!)
Arrival in Fukusima:
Our prefecture group took a bus from Tokyo to Fukshima, a ride that lasted about 4.5 hrs. It was a comfortable ride, as the bus was not full and each person had two seats to themselves. When we arrived in Fukushima, it was probably around 85 degrees and very humid (similar to the south) The entire group was ushered into a large government building in the outskirts of the city. We then had our arrival ceremony and met with the representatives from our contracting organizations. (our immediate supervisors in most cases) I was met two members of the Kitakata Board Of Education (BOE) and another JET who was re-contracting for a second year. One of the BOE members introduced himself as my supervisor. I was fairly surprised because he looked to be around my age or maybe even younger! (actually 26) The other BOE member was a woman in her 30s who spoke very good english.
The car ride to Kitakata took around an hour and a half. I sat in the back with the other JET and she discussed various details about life in Kitakata. We ended up getting lost a few times, but managed to find our way...
Kitakata is a small town of about 50,000 people, however, it was created by several nearby villages merging, and thus the town its is quite spread out and rural. Rice paddies appear everywhere and even in town, open irrigation canals run through the streets. Kitakata is located in a valley, and is surrounded on all sides by quite beautiful mountain ranges. None of the peaks are above the tree line, but they are very near, making them appear quite large.
First few weeks in Kitakata, Fukushima:
I found my apartment to be quite spacious. It is a Japanese style apartment with tatami mats, sliding doors, japanese style bathroom/tub, and even one of those crazy toilets that has illegible buttons that I have so far been afraid to push. I have a washing machine, but no dryer. Japanese people do not seem to use dryers, which I find strange since air-drying clothes in 99% humidity takes FOREVER. Anyways, I have a lot of space, and am in need of furniture since its pretty bare at the moment. My predecessor was still in Japan when I arrived and left the apt partially furnished. It was nice to have him to introduce me to people and show me around town for the first week while he was here. He left me his bike, which was a good find since it is an actual road bike, and not a 1 gear “mamachery” (cruiser) which is what everyone else rides in Japan. The bike is my main mode of transportation since I do not have a car. One of my middle schools is pretty far though, and it takes about 40min to get there by bike. (the alternative would be to take a taxi everyday, at the city's expense, but that seems like a waste of money to me...)
The first few weekends we had various JET organized events for the new people in the prefecture. The second weekend, we had a trip to Iwaki, a coastal city, and camped out on the beach. About 50 JETs attended. It was a lot of fun, the weather was great, and the beach was very nice. Camping on the actual beach is somewhat uncomfortable however, since sand gets everywhere, and into everything. (my teeth were pretty gritty by the next morning, and all the food had a slight crunch to it.) Nobody really got much sleep since the sun rises at like 5am, and its broad daylight by 530.
The next weekend most of the the new Fukushima JETs had a homestay/Japanese lesson in Aizu Wakamatsu, which is about a 30minute train ride from Kitakata. On Friday, we all met at the University of Wakamatsu for english lessons. These lessons were put on by faculty members of the University, and our large group of about 45 was broken into five smaller classes depending on ability. I was placed into the 3rd group, but after the first lesson, I was moved up into the second group with a few others. The class was slightly above my level, and I struggled to keep up with the teacher, but I was able to get by. After about 3 hours of class, we were then introduced to our homestay families. My family consisted of a mother and father who were in their 50s, and a 20 year old daughter who was away at college. My host mother picked me up from the University. She was very friendly, but spoke no english. My brain was already overloaded on Japanese for the day so we struggled through conversation. She told me that she had moved to Japan from Korea when she was a teenager, and was an expert on Korean cooking. They had a larger two story house near the countryside in Wakamatsu. When we arrived my host mother immediately began cooking different kinds of food. My host father arrived shortly after us. He was very quite at first, but came in the door carrying a huge box filled with a large assortment of various alcohol. Once he had ascertained that I drank, we immediately began. 'dinner” took place over the course of the rest of the night. There were about 8 courses of Korean foods that I had never seen, but were very spicy and good. During this 5 hour dinner, large amounts of alcohol were consumed. The custom in Japan is to never ever fill one's own glass. It is also considered rude to leave someone with an empty glass. (or even half empty). The result is that you have no idea how much you have been drinking because every time you take even the smallest sip, your glass is topped off once again. My host mother had invited a friend over, and since most of the conversation revolved around me, I found that I could ease up on the drink. My host father however, got completely hammered, and by about 930pm, I could no longer decipher anything he said to me. (My own drinking might also have contributed to this breakdown in communication....)
9Am Japanese classes at the university the following day were a bit of a struggle for everyone involved, since I found that my night of drinking was pretty much on par with everyone else's night. I made the mistake of buying coffee jello out of the vending machine instead of real actual coffee. Why ANYONE would purposely buy this drink is beyond me. It was a regular looking tin beverage can, though I missed the jelly description on the side (understandable given my state). Even the opening resembled any typical soda can, but there was jelly inside! The size of the hole made it impossible to drink, and although it did not taste terrible, it took me over an hour to finish the 8 oz can. A few other people in my class had made the same mistake, so at least that provided some entertainment... I found the classes to be interesting and helpful, but some of the grammar points we learned were a bit picky and detailed for my level.
The following night, I had an outdoor bbq with my host family with other neighbors in the area. There were 3 other families, and lots of good food. I am glad that Kitakata is close to wakamatsu so that I will be able to visit them in the future. My host father wants to climb Mt Bandai this fall, while my host mother is an avid skier.
Our prefecture group took a bus from Tokyo to Fukshima, a ride that lasted about 4.5 hrs. It was a comfortable ride, as the bus was not full and each person had two seats to themselves. When we arrived in Fukushima, it was probably around 85 degrees and very humid (similar to the south) The entire group was ushered into a large government building in the outskirts of the city. We then had our arrival ceremony and met with the representatives from our contracting organizations. (our immediate supervisors in most cases) I was met two members of the Kitakata Board Of Education (BOE) and another JET who was re-contracting for a second year. One of the BOE members introduced himself as my supervisor. I was fairly surprised because he looked to be around my age or maybe even younger! (actually 26) The other BOE member was a woman in her 30s who spoke very good english.
The car ride to Kitakata took around an hour and a half. I sat in the back with the other JET and she discussed various details about life in Kitakata. We ended up getting lost a few times, but managed to find our way...
Kitakata is a small town of about 50,000 people, however, it was created by several nearby villages merging, and thus the town its is quite spread out and rural. Rice paddies appear everywhere and even in town, open irrigation canals run through the streets. Kitakata is located in a valley, and is surrounded on all sides by quite beautiful mountain ranges. None of the peaks are above the tree line, but they are very near, making them appear quite large.
First few weeks in Kitakata, Fukushima:
I found my apartment to be quite spacious. It is a Japanese style apartment with tatami mats, sliding doors, japanese style bathroom/tub, and even one of those crazy toilets that has illegible buttons that I have so far been afraid to push. I have a washing machine, but no dryer. Japanese people do not seem to use dryers, which I find strange since air-drying clothes in 99% humidity takes FOREVER. Anyways, I have a lot of space, and am in need of furniture since its pretty bare at the moment. My predecessor was still in Japan when I arrived and left the apt partially furnished. It was nice to have him to introduce me to people and show me around town for the first week while he was here. He left me his bike, which was a good find since it is an actual road bike, and not a 1 gear “mamachery” (cruiser) which is what everyone else rides in Japan. The bike is my main mode of transportation since I do not have a car. One of my middle schools is pretty far though, and it takes about 40min to get there by bike. (the alternative would be to take a taxi everyday, at the city's expense, but that seems like a waste of money to me...)
The first few weekends we had various JET organized events for the new people in the prefecture. The second weekend, we had a trip to Iwaki, a coastal city, and camped out on the beach. About 50 JETs attended. It was a lot of fun, the weather was great, and the beach was very nice. Camping on the actual beach is somewhat uncomfortable however, since sand gets everywhere, and into everything. (my teeth were pretty gritty by the next morning, and all the food had a slight crunch to it.) Nobody really got much sleep since the sun rises at like 5am, and its broad daylight by 530.
The next weekend most of the the new Fukushima JETs had a homestay/Japanese lesson in Aizu Wakamatsu, which is about a 30minute train ride from Kitakata. On Friday, we all met at the University of Wakamatsu for english lessons. These lessons were put on by faculty members of the University, and our large group of about 45 was broken into five smaller classes depending on ability. I was placed into the 3rd group, but after the first lesson, I was moved up into the second group with a few others. The class was slightly above my level, and I struggled to keep up with the teacher, but I was able to get by. After about 3 hours of class, we were then introduced to our homestay families. My family consisted of a mother and father who were in their 50s, and a 20 year old daughter who was away at college. My host mother picked me up from the University. She was very friendly, but spoke no english. My brain was already overloaded on Japanese for the day so we struggled through conversation. She told me that she had moved to Japan from Korea when she was a teenager, and was an expert on Korean cooking. They had a larger two story house near the countryside in Wakamatsu. When we arrived my host mother immediately began cooking different kinds of food. My host father arrived shortly after us. He was very quite at first, but came in the door carrying a huge box filled with a large assortment of various alcohol. Once he had ascertained that I drank, we immediately began. 'dinner” took place over the course of the rest of the night. There were about 8 courses of Korean foods that I had never seen, but were very spicy and good. During this 5 hour dinner, large amounts of alcohol were consumed. The custom in Japan is to never ever fill one's own glass. It is also considered rude to leave someone with an empty glass. (or even half empty). The result is that you have no idea how much you have been drinking because every time you take even the smallest sip, your glass is topped off once again. My host mother had invited a friend over, and since most of the conversation revolved around me, I found that I could ease up on the drink. My host father however, got completely hammered, and by about 930pm, I could no longer decipher anything he said to me. (My own drinking might also have contributed to this breakdown in communication....)
9Am Japanese classes at the university the following day were a bit of a struggle for everyone involved, since I found that my night of drinking was pretty much on par with everyone else's night. I made the mistake of buying coffee jello out of the vending machine instead of real actual coffee. Why ANYONE would purposely buy this drink is beyond me. It was a regular looking tin beverage can, though I missed the jelly description on the side (understandable given my state). Even the opening resembled any typical soda can, but there was jelly inside! The size of the hole made it impossible to drink, and although it did not taste terrible, it took me over an hour to finish the 8 oz can. A few other people in my class had made the same mistake, so at least that provided some entertainment... I found the classes to be interesting and helpful, but some of the grammar points we learned were a bit picky and detailed for my level.
The following night, I had an outdoor bbq with my host family with other neighbors in the area. There were 3 other families, and lots of good food. I am glad that Kitakata is close to wakamatsu so that I will be able to visit them in the future. My host father wants to climb Mt Bandai this fall, while my host mother is an avid skier.
Random thoughts from my first month in Japan
8/1 Sunday: My flight from PDX to Narita was 10 hrs and was not too bad of a flight... I made a fool of myself when I started trying to speak Japanese to the girl sitting next to me who ended up being Vietnamese. The funny thing was, she didn't stop me until I had sputtered through like 2 minutes of Japanese conversation. When we landed in Narita, it was only about 1am Portland time (5pm the next day tokyo time), so I was not feeling the jet lag. The airport process was quite easy since there was a huge line of JETs all wearing purple shirts guiding us around to pick up baggage, and then to the busses.
The bus ride into Tokyo was about an hour and a half, and we arrived at the hotel around 7:30pm. The Kieo Plaza hotel is a huge building right in the middle of Tokyo, and our accommodations were pretty nice. I was placed in a room with 2 other guys from my flight, one I had met, and one I had not. The guy I hadn't met (also from Portland) had a Japanese girlfriend. He pretty much skipped out on the entire three day orientation to hang out in Tokyo with her. On the first night, my other roommate and I walked around Tokyo for a little while and stopped in at the Japanese equivalent of a fast food restaurant. To order food, you place money in a vending machine, and press a button with the picture of the food you want. The machine then prints you a ticket and you then give the ticket to the vendor who delivers your food. The entire process took about 2 minutes. I ordered some kind of beef plate...
We then walked around for a few more minutes looking for a clothes shop for my roommate who had somehow forgotten to pack any shirts in his bag (other than the 1 shirt he was wearing and 1 dress shirt). I don't know how he managed to miss the memo on this b/c they went over the same info at the Portland orientations like 3 times, and included detailed packing instructions identifying all the clothing we would likely need... he also thought we were going to be in Tokyo for just 1 day...so who knows.... In any event, this kid was huge, probably around 6 foot 3 and 250+. Since Japanese sizes run quite a bit smaller we would probably have needed to find some kind of sumo wrestling clothes shop (although its not like they wear much either) Needless to say, at the stores we did end up trying, he could not even squeeze into the XL sizes, so we gave up, and went back to the hotel to sleep.
Orientation
8/2 and 8/3:
We broke off into our prefecture groups to introduce ourselves and get some info about where we would be staying specifically. The rest of the day was filled with hour long seminars on such topics as team teaching in elementary schools, saving money, and even such topics as cooking.
On Monday evening, we had a welcome ceremony toast with various high ranking ambassador types. The food was excellent. After the toast, my prefecture group (Fukushima) had organized a get together at a nearby restaurant/bar. They explained that bars in Japan often offered what is called “nomihodai” or all you can drink/eat for a set price. The cover for this particular bar was 2500 yen, ($30...exchange rate blows right now) For the record, these places are a great deal! For 2 hours, they will serve your group as much food and booze as you can handle... This is trouble for foreigners, and especially Americans since we come in with the attitude that if its all you can eat/drink, then you damn well better eat/drink all you possibly can...
8/1 Sunday: My flight from PDX to Narita was 10 hrs and was not too bad of a flight... I made a fool of myself when I started trying to speak Japanese to the girl sitting next to me who ended up being Vietnamese. The funny thing was, she didn't stop me until I had sputtered through like 2 minutes of Japanese conversation. When we landed in Narita, it was only about 1am Portland time (5pm the next day tokyo time), so I was not feeling the jet lag. The airport process was quite easy since there was a huge line of JETs all wearing purple shirts guiding us around to pick up baggage, and then to the busses.
The bus ride into Tokyo was about an hour and a half, and we arrived at the hotel around 7:30pm. The Kieo Plaza hotel is a huge building right in the middle of Tokyo, and our accommodations were pretty nice. I was placed in a room with 2 other guys from my flight, one I had met, and one I had not. The guy I hadn't met (also from Portland) had a Japanese girlfriend. He pretty much skipped out on the entire three day orientation to hang out in Tokyo with her. On the first night, my other roommate and I walked around Tokyo for a little while and stopped in at the Japanese equivalent of a fast food restaurant. To order food, you place money in a vending machine, and press a button with the picture of the food you want. The machine then prints you a ticket and you then give the ticket to the vendor who delivers your food. The entire process took about 2 minutes. I ordered some kind of beef plate...
We then walked around for a few more minutes looking for a clothes shop for my roommate who had somehow forgotten to pack any shirts in his bag (other than the 1 shirt he was wearing and 1 dress shirt). I don't know how he managed to miss the memo on this b/c they went over the same info at the Portland orientations like 3 times, and included detailed packing instructions identifying all the clothing we would likely need... he also thought we were going to be in Tokyo for just 1 day...so who knows.... In any event, this kid was huge, probably around 6 foot 3 and 250+. Since Japanese sizes run quite a bit smaller we would probably have needed to find some kind of sumo wrestling clothes shop (although its not like they wear much either) Needless to say, at the stores we did end up trying, he could not even squeeze into the XL sizes, so we gave up, and went back to the hotel to sleep.
Orientation
8/2 and 8/3:
We broke off into our prefecture groups to introduce ourselves and get some info about where we would be staying specifically. The rest of the day was filled with hour long seminars on such topics as team teaching in elementary schools, saving money, and even such topics as cooking.
On Monday evening, we had a welcome ceremony toast with various high ranking ambassador types. The food was excellent. After the toast, my prefecture group (Fukushima) had organized a get together at a nearby restaurant/bar. They explained that bars in Japan often offered what is called “nomihodai” or all you can drink/eat for a set price. The cover for this particular bar was 2500 yen, ($30...exchange rate blows right now) For the record, these places are a great deal! For 2 hours, they will serve your group as much food and booze as you can handle... This is trouble for foreigners, and especially Americans since we come in with the attitude that if its all you can eat/drink, then you damn well better eat/drink all you possibly can...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
