Say what?!

Japanese people are very private. Despite working together for years, many coworkers never learn much about each others' personal lives. As a private person myself, I appreciate that the teachers at my school tend not to ask many invasive questions, for more than once I've been asked by American coworkers both here in Japan and in the U.S. some very nosy questions. (Funnily, though, when it comes to being sick, Japanese people are not shy about sharing exacting details of their sickness.) So, needless to say, this tendency toward extreme privacy has led to some surprising discoveries on my part.

At the April 2010 welcome enkai for all new teachers, one of my coworkers complimented me that I use ohashi better than his wife. (A grossly overstated kindness on my ability to eat with chopsticks, I know.) However, it wasn't until December 2010 when another teacher and I were riding in his car to the end-of-second-term enkai that I learned he has a baby, which the car seat sitting conspicuously in the back seat couldn't hide. But it was only last week at the undoukai (sports festival) enkai that he shared that this "baby" is three years old. Maybe next year he'll tell me if his kid is a boy or a girl!

One Friday this summer, the teacher who sits next to me, who also happens to be the teacher with whom I talk the most since she speaks great English, told me that she was leaving school early and that she wouldn't be back until midweek the following week. That evening, when I went to visit an AET friend who'd been in the hospital for a couple of weeks, who should I run into at the hospital but that same teacher whose husband had had surgery that afternoon.

Then today, I received my third and most surprising bit of information about one of my coworkers. When I was talking with the jimuin (teachers' room manager) about what was happening with the youchiensei (kindergarteners) on the playground this morning (as I was supposed to teach them English and hadn't been informed of the change in schedule), she told me that they were learning how to run properly from a famous Japanese sprinter. When I asked if he was an Olympian, she told me that, while he isn't/wasn't an Olympic-level runner, apparently he's not too far from being/having been at the top of his sport. Then, quite out of the blue, she told me that the school nurse's husband was an Olympian and that he'd won a bronze medal at the 1998 Nagano Olympics. I was floored! Last year when the school nurse's desk was next to mine, I'd told her that I wanted to visit Nagano before I left Japan. And she showed me the hockey puck that she'd bought in Nagano when she visited there in 1998 and now uses as a paperweight. Not once did she say that she bought it when she went to watch her husband compete!

I wonder what other interesting biographical bits of information my teachers are hiding.

Until next time...

Nemo is much more appealing in the sea

Tuesday is the closing ceremony for the summer term at school; and last night was the teachers' end-of-term enkai. My first enkai back in April, the welcome one for new teachers and the start of the school year, was a great experience socially and gustatorily. (For tales from my previous enkai see this post.) While I can say the same about the social aspects of last night's celebration, I cannot even begin to say the same about the evening's gustatory aspects. (I wanted to take pictures of last night's dishes; but I left my camera at home and then forgot to use my camera phone. So my apologies that I don't have pictures to speak my 1,000 words. But trust me when I say that last night's dishes would have been quite the sight for you to see.)

Socially, I had a good time. Our tables at the first party of the evening (just as last time, there were two parties - one in a hotel dining room and another at a restaurant) were assigned not by grade-level as they were at April's enkai but by matching the package of candy or gum that we drew out of a box with the identical package placed at one of four dining tables. So I ended up sitting with the third-grade teachers, one fourth-grade teacher, and the principal. What began as polite conversation about our summer vacation plans, what cuisines we enjoy, etc. ended with me getting asked about my dating life and perhaps my principal making a pass at me. I have no idea how it happened, as the conversation that had been occurring prior to that point in Japanese and I had stopped paying attention. But after I got drawn into a flow of conversation that is too long to write about came to a close, I think my principal asked me if I would get a Japanese boyfriend and then told me that he is single, which I later found out that he's not. What is it with older, married men making (possible) passes at me? You're not my target demographic! But I digress. Back to the events of the evening.

The entertainment during the meal was BINGO; and I had the opportunity to experience some of what my students feel when I play it with them in English class, since, of course, last night we played it in Japanese. (The students do have the advantage of having studied 1-10 since first grade, 1-20 since second grade, etc. However, once you know how to count from one to ten in Japanese, numbers from 11 to 99 aren't hard to figure out, e.g., eleven is said as ten-one, 20 is said as two-ten, 39 is said as three-ten-nine.... ) But I did get a BINGO and win a Hello Kitty toothbrush, though I was slightly envious of the ninja mask that one of the special education teachers won and the punching cat ballpoint pen that the principal won, since both would have been great gifts for my nephew.

Gustatorily, I had a horrible time. It was heavy on the seafood, which I already struggle with eating, having grown up in the land-locked state of Kansas. But the seafood from the first enkai was really good whereas from last night's enkai it was really bad. Strangely enough, once again I liked the sashimi. It was everything else, including the Beef-Wellington-esque course, that I wish I wouldn't have eaten, especially since between the first and second enkai the evening will have cost me around $70 when I pay my share of the first enkai at school next week. But I was adventurous in my eating, which impressed the teachers and administrators, since they know that I don't particularly care for seafood. So I'm glad that I made the effort to try the foods that they like, even if I didn't.

During the first meal, lying on top of a plastic green leaf in my cubed tuna and salmon sashimi bowl served with rice, ginger, seaweed, and some other shredded vegetable, were salmon eggs. (To give you a mental picture, if you don't know what a salmon egg looks like, think of slightly small peas that are pink instead of green.) I ate two of them since everyone had been watching me pick around my meal all evening. While I don't plan to eat them again, they weren't as fishy-tasting as I'd expected them to be, nor were they salty like caviar. But once bitten into, the liquid inside immediately dissipated into my mouth since they have no substance; so other than any possible omega-3 benefits, I don't know why someone would want to eat a salmon egg. Other food served during the first meal included raw and cooked shrimp with the heads and, therefore, eyeballs still attached; noodles made from puréed whitefish with sticky fishy-tasting sauce underneath; a gelatinous substance made from fish whose name sounds similar to the word "cognac"; and who knows what else that my mind is trying to forget. The only thing I liked from this first meal was the course with the three meatballs in tomato and vegetable sauce and the one-inch square of watermelon that came with the dessert course.

At the second meal, there was a salad that I was looking forward to eating, until I realized that mixed in with the daikon radish shreds were tiny, translucent white fish, whose backbones (or waste veins, not sure which) and eyeballs could be seen if examined closely enough. I ate one little white thing that may have been radish or fish, I'm not sure which, before giving my plate to the administrator sitting across from me to finish, since he proclaimed that it was very healthy. I was offered some raw oyster that I initially turned down and then tried despite my misgivings, since even the aforementioned administrator said he doesn't eat raw oyster. However, I don't have the hashi (chopsticks) skills that Japanese people have when it comes to cutting. So rather than getting a little piece of raw oyster to try, I pulled off a huge piece. It was without a doubt the most revolting thing I have ever tasted. Well, I take that back; it may not have been worse than the toilet-flavored liver that I ate several weeks ago. I couldn't chew it up and ended up having to swallow it whole, helped along by a generous gulp of Coca-Cola. Another "traditional" lettuce and tomato salad had seafood in it; and the piece of (raw? cooked?) octopus that was on my plate was crunchy and gross, which was nothing at all like the octopus that I tried at my last enkai. So when that same administrator offered me some fried squid tentacles that came from the tank just inside the restaurant doors, I turned them down. (On a side note, I pass by this restaurant every Wednesday during my walk to my once-weekly kindergarten. I've always wondered how the food tasted and what was in the tank. Be careful what you wish for, right?) The only thing from this meal that I liked was the french fries and the Coca-Cola.

Seventy dollars is a lot of money to drop on food, especially on food that isn't good. And while enkai attendance isn't required, I do like the camaraderie of the parties since I don't spend as much time with the teachers as they spend with each other due to their 12ish-hour work day expectations. So I most likely will go to the next enkai-like party in September after the school's sports festival. But as I hope to travel somewhere in December, and the end-of-term enkai will be held just a few days before Christmas, I highly doubt that I'll be present for that one. So here's to hoping for an enkai more like the first and less like the last. Kampai!

Until next time...

Oh, what a night!

When people say that the Japanese are hospitable people, they aren't kidding! Yesterday was my first full day at work; and shortly after I arrived, the brother of one of the teachers who sits next to me in the teacher's room arrived to serve as my translator for the morning. He returned to Japan three weeks ago, after having lived in the States for the past 17 years. And he will continue to come for the next month or so for 15 minutes each day to help translate while the teachers and I make plans for my English lessons during each day's morning break. I highly doubt that any of the other schools have hired a translator to come to school to work with their AETs, especially when a few teachers in the school already speak good English (despite their doubts!). The funny thing of it is that our paths appear to have crossed several years ago when I was living in Texas, as he competed in a college athletic event at the university where I was working at the time. Small world, huh?!

The type of enkai I'd been told might occur and had been nervous about the past two months never came to fruition last night. I actually had a lot of fun at my first enkai of the evening and am glad I made the decision to go to the second. The first enkai was more formal and was held in a reception room at a very nice hotel in town. The new teachers to the school were introduced to the returning teachers. The kocho-sensei (principal) said kind words about each of us. (But who knows what he actually said about me!) And the new teachers made a speech to the returning teachers. Thankfully, Japanese wasn't expected from me this time.

For as slender as the average Japanese person is, wow, do they know how to eat! I have never eaten an eight-course meal before. So to eat my first one in Japan and then go to another restaurant in the same evening to eat even more food was quite an amazing juxtaposition to behold. The evening's main meal, of which I tried and truly enjoyed everything I ate, entailed a green salad with salmon and octopus; shrimp, bream, and tuna sashimi (raw seafood; By the way, can anyone tell me what bream is?); roasted pork in a sweet sauce with greens and potato; shrimp and squid in a Chinese red chili sauce; medium-rare steak in a pepper sauce with potatoes; cold soba (buckwheat) noodle soup; and fruit and a small (think one-inch-square) piece of cake for dessert. (Yes, I know that's only seven courses; but I can't remember what the eighth one was!)

But now that I think about it, perhaps the reason for eating at the second enkai is because my coworkers didn't actually eat much at the first one! While I stayed seated at my table and ate practically everything of each dish that was put before me, my Japanese coworkers almost immediately stood up after the first course was served and floated from table to table as they refilled each other's drinks. So those who continued on to the second enkai of the evening at a restaurant across the street ordered more food. I had some wonderful chocolate soft serve ice cream for dessert and tried the fried chicken cartilage that another one of the new teachers ordered. Although the flavor was good (It really did taste like chicken!), the texture was disgusting. Chicken cartilage will not be going on my list of dishes to order again.

Although enkai does translate to drinking party, I was able to see last night that it didn't have the connotation I'd been expecting. That's not to say, though, that all enkai are the same. Some can be more like college or bachelor parties once the men and the women have dispersed into separate groups. But while large quantities of Sapporo beer were consumed (as were other alcoholic beverages, teas, and juices) nobody got out of control. In fact, the shy Japanese just became more extroverted, albeit with florid faces since their bodies don't metabolize alcohol well. And the Japanese who said that they spoke very bad English prior to the evening's festivities proved themselves to have more mastery of the language than they had believed!

The teacher whose brother is my translator drove me home. (She was one of the evening's emcees and is crazy fun while being a teetotaler.) As we pulled up to my apartment she told me that all of the Japanese teachers think that I am a very good AET. I laughed and asked how, considering that I haven't taught one lesson yet. She said that when I introduced myself at the school on Thursday, I told everyone that I must learn Japanese; and then when I said "Konban wa" (good evening) in my enkai speech, people were further impressed. I'm 100% illiterate and 99.9% ignorant of the spoken language. And my understanding of Japanese ways and customs is not much better. But I want to make good relationships with these friendly people. So I'm glad that my love of language learning and a casually tossed out phrase of greeting have prepared the way for that.

Until next time...

Work Week One

On my 20-minute walk in the rain on the way to the bus terminal this morning, I noticed two things: First, inside an office, the employees were doing their morning exercise routine. I don't know if what they were doing was actually tai chi, but I wondered if I'll be doing morning exercises at my schools. I kind of hope I will be. And second, who knew manhole covers could be pretty? Whoever had the idea of putting a design of sakurabana (cherry blossom) on the covers received an appreciative fan today, as they gave me something nice to look at while my head was down against the blowing cold rain.

Day four on the new job finally felt like a workday, despite the fact that I've been wearing a suit all week. Monday was spent at City Hall all day, applying for gaijin (foreigner) identification cards and a bank account. It literally was a lot of sitting around and waiting interrupted by a walk across the parking lot for Indian food. Tuesday was spent in training with the AET sempai (senior teachers); and Wednesday was more of the same. But today we put what we learned during yesterday's training to good use, as we went back to City Hall to meet several of the employees of the Board of Education and visited our main schools for the first time.

We were formally presented to the Superintendent of the Board of Education this morning and received our certificates to teach English before being formally presented to the kyoto-sensei (vice-principals) of our schools this afternoon. At both ceremonies, there was a lot of bowing on everyone's part, a lot of hospitality extended on their part, and a lot of mangled Japanese on my part. Five times today I had to say "Watashi wa (my name) desu. Watashi no shogakko wa (school name) shogakko desu. Yoroshiku oneigaishimasu." And I said it differently each time. But I appreciate their graciousness in accepting my bumbled attempts to speak Japanese.

My elementary school is newly renovated and very nice. The teachers and administrators seemed extremely nice; and as an added blessing, there are a few English-speaking teachers in my school. Tomorrow is a half day for students/full day for teachers. On Monday I'll be at the kindergarten connected to my elementary school. Tuesday is a half day for students, as all the teachers in the city are conducting afternoon visits to their students' homes this week. On Wednesday I'll be at my third school, another kindergarten. Thursday is a national holiday. And Friday is another half day for students before heading into a five-day weekend for Golden Week (a week in which two national holidays fall). So my first full day to teach English at the elementary school will be two weeks from today. What a way to ease into a new job!

Tomorrow night is my welcome enkai, literally translated as drinking party. I'm looking forward to getting to know my coworkers outside the school, since Japanese people's at-work personae are different from their away-from-work personae. But I'm not looking forward to being around a lot of drunk people. Enkai are extremely important in Japanese society; and it's encouraged that we attend as many as possible so that we can create deeper relationships with the other teachers and staff. However, more than one enkai occurs in an evening. And several (expensive) enkai occur in a school year. So depending on how tomorrow night goes, the next enkai I write about may be the closing enkai of the year.

Until next time...