Really, Pam? Really?

Pam Jones, Bridget's mother in the movie Bridget Jones's Diary, when talking about Mark Darcy's Japanese ex-wife, calls her a member of a "cruel race". While this likely is done for plot and/or comedic purpose, it may also be a commentary by the screenwriters about Japan's aggression in China and the Pacific before and during World War II. While some nations feel that the government of Japan still owes amends for its war crimes (a topic that is not the focus of this post or this blog), in my trips to Japan, I've found the people of Japan to be anything but cruel.

As mentioned in a previous post, on the first day that I went to my one-day-a-week kindergarten, I was unaware that I needed to pack a lunch since I eat kyuushoku (school lunch) with the students at my main school. Upon learning that I had no lunch, the jimuin (teacher's room manager) left school in cats-and-dogs rain to buy me something to eat and then wouldn't allow me to repay her. 

During my first month or two of being here, I needed to see a bank teller to handle a transaction since my bank card had not yet arrived. So T.-sensei, my jimuin, took me to the bank one day after lunch. As we were walking into the bank, I smelled the most heavenly scent coming from the bakery just across the street. And as we were walking out of the bank, I told T.-sensei that I would like to go into the bakery to see what smelled so wonderful. While I was looking at the cases trying to decide if I wanted anything, T.-sensei was making a purchase of six madeleines, yummy French pastries, that she then proceeded to give to me, for they had been the source of the wonderful smell.

In working to transfer N.P.'s scooter into my name, I asked several other AETs for assistance. Some of the AETs were kind enough to help me directly. But others said, "Talk to...." And when I would talk to..., he or she would say, "Talk to..." and before I knew it I was circled back around to the first person with whom I'd spoken. It was frustrating since I had no idea what I needed to do and felt that the scooter experts in the group were passing the buck. But when I told K.-sensei, my school nurse, about one of the questions for which I needed help, she and N.-sensei, the jimuho (handyman / groundskeeper), spent an hour online searching for the scooter's model number so that I could fill out the change of ownership paperwork.

My nephew's seventh birthday is this weekend. And I searched many stores here and in Tokyo over the course of several weeks in order to find just the right gift. The special education teacher called a couple different stores to ask if they had the items for which I was searching so that I wouldn't have to traipse all over the city once again. And when the one item that would complete the gift remained elusive, K.-sensei said that she would keep her eyes open for it. I told her to not worry about it, since I knew that it meant she would make a special trip to find that item. As anticipated, when I arrived at work the next day, not only had she found that elusive item but she'd also found several extra-special bonus items and wouldn't accept money for any of it.

I find the Japanese people to be more Christ-like in their actions than many Christians I've met, including myself. And it's not just the people at school who know me who've been so kind. They think of others before they think of themselves. They apologize for things that they personally did not do (e.g., attack at Pearl Harbor). And they go out of their way to help a person in need. In my experience, Pam Jones doesn't know what she's talking about.

Lessons learned on Guam

I spent most of the first week of August on Guam with three other English teachers for our use-them-or-lose-them five days of tokkyu (summer vacation). We flew out of Japan on Sunday's red-eye and flew into Japan on Friday's first flight out and packed all of our waking hours in between with sight-seeing, shopping, and stuffing our faces with American food. Although the trip wasn't a cheap one, I am proud to say that I was able to eat for four days at just around $100, thanks to splitting every meal but breakfast with my friend, H.V. (I highly recommend the California Club pizza at California Pizza Kitchen. But I strongly advise you to stay away from the CPK Cobb Salad. It's way too rich.)

Guam is an American territory that sits closer to Japan (three-hour flight) than it does to the United States (eight-hour flight to Hawaii). As a result, 75% of its tourism is comprised of East Asians (historically Japanese but increasingly South Koreans and Chinese); and the Japanese written language can be seen alongside its English equivalent on restaurant menus and mall directories and the spoken language heard just as frequently if not more predominately than English. Its interesting history has resulted in a blend of Chamorro (native), Spanish, Asian, and American family and location names. But rather than write a post that is a history lesson, I'll let you read more about that here and here. Guam has beautiful scenery; and I took too many pictures to post on this blog. So please click here if you'd like to see some of the views I saw while there. Instead, I'll use this post to enumerate lessons I learned/opinions I developed while on Guam:

1. Diet Coke really doesn't taste good and should never become an acquired taste.
2. The world's largest Kmart, while very nice, can't be all that boastful if it carries only two George Clooney movies (one of which is Return of the Killer Tomatoes!) and no York Peppermint Patties.
3. Stomachs shrink after living in Japan; and American restaurant portion sizes are sickeningly huge.
4. Omiyage, the Japanese art of gift giving to honor relationships, is a racket designed by Japanese companies to keep themselves in business.
5. Liev Schreiber almost wins the award for the perfect villain's voice. Sadly for him but happily for us, he's beaten out by Alan Rickman.
6. Touring World War II battle and memorial sites with Japanese people is somewhat awkward, even though the war is most probably the fault of neither of us.
7. Americans are very loud and need to be more discreet about or, even better, not discuss at all their spouse's reproductive problems and their "bastard child(ren) in the Philippines" over Chili's chips and salsa.

Until next time...

Teachers' Trip Activities

On the last Saturday of July, approximately 20 teachers and I went on the annual teachers' trip that occurs at the end of each summer term. We met at the school at 7:00am for the bus ride to Tokyo and returned at 8:30pm. I was uncertain about what to expect, since many other AETs have talked about their schools' party committees renting buses stocked with alcohol and some of their teachers embarrassing themselves and others when they over-indulge in beer, wine, and cocktails. But as I have been discovering with each enkai that I attend, the teachers at my school enjoy alcoholic beverages responsibly. Perhaps this is due to the influence of my school's administrators or party committee, I don't know. But it's a huge relief for me, nevertheless.

Upon arriving in Tokyo, we immediately went to the Nippon Television Network to see a clock weighing 28 tons, standing 36 feet tall, and measuring 54 feet wide. It was designed by Hayao Miyazaki, the man who runs Studio Ghibli, an animation house which created the recent Ponyo and the Oscar-winning Spirited Away. For fifty-five minutes of every hour, the clock is a regular, albeit steampunk-looking, clock. However, at five minutes to the hour during a certain window every day, the clock begins its magic, as seen in the clip below.



After watching the clock, we went to lunch at a restaurant in the Keio Plaza Hotel, an upscale hotel in Tokyo's Shinjuku ward. The meal was served buffet-style. But if you're picturing Golden Corral, you're doing an injustice to this restaurant. Yes, a salad bar and carved roast beef were provided. Would a buffet be complete without them? But picture also main dishes such as black spaghetti (which gets its color from squid ink) tossed with Genoan ham, green peas, and pesto sauce and Japanese beef curry served with rice; an assortment of gourmet cheeses; steamed whole shrimp and other Japanese seafood selections; white wine jelly (gelatin), a variety of small cakes, and vanilla or pumpkin ice cream for dessert. As I can never eat my money's worth at an American buffet, there's absolutely no way that I ate my money's worth at this buffet!

Had I known when I said I would go on the teachers' trip that the main event of the day was watching comedians rather than watching the filming of a Japanese game show, which is what I originally thought we would be doing, I wouldn't have gone on the trip since I was also leaving for Guam the next day and could have used that time to finish preparing for the trip. As it was, while the teachers watched the comedians, I fruitlessly searched all the shopping centers in the area (There were at least four in a one-square-mile area.) for a certain gift for my nephew. However, my principal was impressed with the fact that I came on the trip. So since he's the one who can make or break my future employment with this program and I did enjoy the time I spent with the teachers on the bus and at lunch, the trip was ultimately worthwhile.

Until next time...

Training can be fun!

Although summer vacation began for students last week, as mentioned in my last post, teachers don't get off for the summer break and are required to be at school, to attend seminars, and (for some) to assist with AET training (unless they are taking a one-day vacation, that is) during the six-week break. That is where I have been this past week -- in AET training. Having arrived in Japan just three and a half months ago and having sat through rookie training during that first week we were here, I didn't know what to expect with this summer's team training. I was afraid it was going to be a rehash of what we'd gone through in April, and while I was so jet-lagged that I don't remember the vast majority of what was shared with us during that first week, I wasn't looking forward to hearing it all again. But as I found out this week, when done right, training can actually be fun! Rather than bore you with all the details of what we did this week, I'll just share the highlights.

Every morning began with a game led by our self-monikered Wolf Pack (activities) leaders, B.W. and D.L. On Monday we played the game Take a Hike. In this game one person stands in the middle of a circle of people sitting in chairs; and there are enough chairs for everyone in the game minus one so that there is always a person left to stand in the middle. The person in the middle then says "Take a hike if..." and then all the people who can agree with that statement must get up and move chairs. Some of the best comments that caused people to change chairs included, "Take a hike if your home room teacher has ever fallen asleep in class." and "Take a hike if you've ever kanchoed a student."

Thursday had each of us writing a question on a slip of paper and then putting that paper into a hat. We each drew another question from the hat and answered it on a different piece of paper before putting the paper with the answer back into the hat. Then we drew an answer from the hat and matched it with the question we had held onto. The most hilarious question/answer was read by H.W., a female AET. "What would you do if women were the dominant sex?" "I'd cry and take off my shirt." Who knows what question that answer was really responding to!

In Friday's game, we each got a half piece of paper on which we were to write a statement. We passed the paper to another person who then drew a picture to match that statement. Before the person passed the paper to a third person, he/she folded the paper so that the original statement couldn't be seen; and the third person had to write a statement based on the picture. Then the fourth person, who couldn't see either the original statement or picture, had to draw a picture based on the most recent statement. I think we got about five or six people deep in our sentence-picture-sentence game before we were told to stop. By far the funniest sentence progression was, "I like babies with chubby cheeks." "I love barbecues!"

As part of our training discussions, we watched a couple episodes of the late-70s British TV show, "Mind Your Language," which is a series about a man who teaches English as a second language to adult students who've immigrated to the U.K. It's quite politically incorrect for the 21st Century. However, the attitudes, words, and actions of the characters in the show still can be found in the world today; so the clips were relevant for us to watch. We compared and contrasted the teacher's classroom behaviors and school relationships with those of our own. A clip of the show is provided below. Would you want these people to be your teacher and administrator?

After four days of job training, we ended on Friday with a fun Japanese cultural day and learned how to make California sushi rolls and fold origami at the International Center. Given that professional sushi chefs receive training for 10 years and still don't consider themselves to be masters, making sushi wasn't as daunting as I thought it would be. And it was quite fun! I don't know how frequently I'll make it on my own; but I'm glad to know how.

I'd spent a lot of time telling the others how to roll and cut their sushi, as I had been directly behind the instructor while she demonstrated how to assemble the ingredients of nori (seaweed), rice, avocado, imitation crab, and cucumber and they hadn't been able to see her actions from where they were standing. When it came my turn to make a California roll, I was afraid that I would prove myself to be all talk and no action. But my roll came together quite well, I'm proud to say.

The meal was served family style; and 24 of us AETs prepared sushi. So there's no telling if I ever got to try the roll that I made.

The shrimp, fish, egg, and tuna salad was do-it-yourself sushi that could be wrapped in lettuce leaves, nori, or the dark green leaves that are native to Thailand.

The instructors made the orange gelatin for us. They juiced the oranges and used powdered seaweed as the gelatin and then allowed them to set in the halved orange rinds before cutting each half into thirds before serving. They were quite good and didn't have a seaweed taste to them at all.

Until next time...

Even the kids get their own festivals in Japan.

In a country where the average teacher is expected to work six (or seven) days at 60+ hours each week and is rarely allowed to take consecutive days of nenkyuu (vacation) during the six-week break between the summer and fall terms, it's understandable that the teachers from my school weren't all that excited about assisting the PTA with the end-of-term festival that was held this past weekend. However, they recognize that the students have a lot of fun. And as Japanese teachers tend to be very committed to their students (Why else would a Japanese person want to become a teacher with those kinds of time expectations?), after having put in their 60+ hours during the previous week they worked an additional four to 16+ hours to help prepare for and host Sunday's festival. As for me, I miss my students and wanted the comp time so that I can have one work day this summer to take my driving test without having to use any of my nenkyuu days. So I worked the festival as well.

**The area festival was open not only to the kids (and their families) who attend the school but also to the surrounding neighborhood. In many ways, it was like a New York City street festival that one might see in the movies (You've Got Mail anyone?), albeit on the dirt field/playground behind the school building. There were ring toss games, cheap toys for purchase, food stands, a performance stage, etc. But then there were other things that I was somewhat surprised to see at a school event -- beer flowing freely, old women performing Hawaiian and Hokkaido dances, fireworks progressing from tamer Roman Candles to rapid-fire shells that arced across the sky. But one of the coolest things to see were so many of my female students wearing yukata, or summer-weight kimono. A traditional female yukata, as my teachers told me, would have had flowers or fish printed on it and been blue. A traditional male yukata would have contained geometric patterns such as stripes or squares and been blue, black, or white. Modern-day women's yukata come in many colors and patterns, including the ubiquitous Hello Kitty. The students above wore contemporary shoes with their yukata; but a few came in traditional geta. (See this article for more information about the geta.) Very few of my male students wore yukata, which wasn't surprising.

**A couple different variations of snow cones were sold. (They weren't on cones but rather were in cups or bowls.) And popcorn (my booth), pizza, hashed browns, cotton candy, and grilled marshmallows rounded out the more American-like food options, although the pizza had corn as a topping and the grilled marshmallows were allowed only to get sticky rather than brown. But traditional fare like okonomiyaki (Japanese pancakes), yakisoba (fried noodles prepared with vegetables and often meat), and Gohei-mochi was also available. I didn't try the Japanese pancakes, as there's a really good okonomiyaki restaurant near my apartment that I want to try first. And I've eaten yakisoba many times before. But having never heard of let alone eaten Gohei-mochi, I decided to try it. 

According to Japanese tradition (and Wikipedia), mochi is made by rabbits who live on the moon. To make mochi, Japanese rice is pounded into a paste and then is formed into whatever shape is desired. It's usually fairly tasteless (by Western standards) and is so sticky that many non-Japanese people have to learn to like it or never learn to like it because it's so difficult to swallow. I don't know if Gohei-mochi is made by lunar bunnies as well, but it looks and tastes different. Hot rice is rolled into a ball in the palm of the preparer's hand and is then wrapped and pressed around two joined chopsticks, sort of like a popsicle. The rice popsicle is chilled and then dipped into a sauce containing soy sauce, sesame oil, sake, walnut paste, and another ingredient that escapes me before being grilled to be served. It was quite yummy; and I ended up eating two.

I can't remember having any events like this when I was in elementary school, other than field day. So while the teacher who took me home at the end of the day thought that it was a lot of work (which for the Japanese teachers it was more work than for me), I found the festival to be really enjoyable. I liked working alongside the teachers in a non-classroom setting. Seeing the students and their reactions when they didn't expect to see me at their festival was quite fun. Watching them show off their extracurricular skills in band, taiko (traditional Japanese drumming), and drill team allowed me to see a side of them that I don't get to see when they're in English class or get to ask about during lunch since I don't speak Japanese. And making the connections between siblings that I hadn't yet made was great as well.

Until next time...

**UPDATE (11/22/10): Photographs depicting school children and faculty/staff have been removed per the instruction of the teachers' consultant.

Who's that smell?

Scent is one of the easiest ways to trigger memories. I'm sure evolutionary biologists explain it as how the brain developed during our progression from apes to humans; and scent and memories are connected to that primitive part of our brain. But as I don't buy that (the macro-evolutionary apes-becoming-humans idea, that is; the scent-memory connection is true), I just recognize it to be true and figure out how to make it work for me. So with each place I travel outside of the States, I try to find a new scent to connect me with that location's memories. Sun-Ripened Raspberry will forever remind me of France. Cucumber Melon takes me back to my two trips to China (but is now on the permanent DL in the line-up of acceptable scents to use as my memories of China are not very good). And Sweet Pea transports me back to Honduras.

After Bath & Body Works retired Sun-Ripened Raspberry, my favorite scent from BBW became Japanese Cherry Blossom. So imagine how fortuitous I felt it was when I was hired to teach English in Japan. I didn't have to find a new scent to use during my time here. During my first month of living in this country, I smelled clean and fruity when I arrived at school, at church, and even at home at the end of the day. (C.G. always knew when I arrived to our apartment building before she did, since she could smell JCB in the elevator.) But my JCB lotion supply ended. And while my mom replenished my supply, I decided to reserve it for seasons (or days) when I'm not going to have to bathe more than once daily as a result of sticky, gross weather. So I've settled for using a scentless lotion during the week and JCB only on Sundays. As a result, I don't smell as girly when I arrive at school as I would like. In fact, I smell like a little boy who's been playing outside. And that just doesn't sit well with me.

So imagine my joy when N.P. said I could have his scooter for free (minus the cost of any repairs a two-years-unused scooter might need to become operational again). I figured the $150 investment would be well spent so that I could start driving to school. Not only would I not have an hour-long commute every day but I also wouldn't get as sweaty-nasty and require four or more hours to dry out. So after getting my scooter licensed with basic insurance on Thursday, I went for my first ride last night. It was scarily exhilarating. (Those road bumps are felt more keenly when you're in the open air.) It was freeing. (Who likes being dependent on others for rides after they've been their own chauffeur for over 10 years?) And... it was stinky. Yes, the exhaust coming out of other vehicles' tail pipes was quite foul. But I noticed that I was stinky at the end of my ride, which I had not anticipated, never having so much as sat on a motorcycle or scooter until I arrived in Japan. So once I get permission from my vice-principal to drive to school, instead of wearing eau de sweaty boy upon my arrival, I'll be wearing eau de petrol -- NOT the scent-induced-memory of me that I would have liked to leave with my students!

Until next time...

One down, two to go

Today was the end of the first trimester of the 2010-11 school year. I had been looking forward to this day since mid-May, not because I don't enjoy teaching my students but because my schedule is such that I am exhausted all the time and had been anticipating the much-needed break. However, the realization came to me last week that not only does the summer break mean that I won't be teaching, although I still will have to go to school, but also that I won't see my students. (Some of you more experienced teachers out there may say that's a good thing. But if you'll just hear me out, you'll understand why it was so difficult to say goodbye.)

Last week as I was saying goodbye at the end of each English class, although I knew that we would all see each other today, it very much felt like a farewell since I knew that we all wouldn't be able to interact today. So when it came time for the students to line up at 11:30am today to head home for lunch after the closing ceremony and home room activities ended, I started to cry. At the time, I thought it was because there were some students whom I most likely would never see again - i.e., the two sets of Japanese-American siblings who'd been at school this summer while visiting their grandparents and the unrelated boy and girl who are moving to different cities. So I prayed God's protection on all of them this summer, whatever they may do or wherever they may go, as I was standing there waiting for them to leave and waving at them as they were waving at me. But later this afternoon, I realized that there was more to my sadness than just missing their cute faces over the next six weeks.

My adjustment to life in Japan hasn't been easy. I've been without car/scooter/bike for three months and have been dependent on public transportation and/or other people to get me around town, both of which have proved to not always be reliable. As such, it's been extremely difficult for me to connect physically with the other teachers in my group, since I've sometimes had to miss church or have not been invited to various activities due to my lack of wheels (or so I tell myself). As a result, I've consoled myself in the fact that while socially my life may be lacking here in Japan, vocationally I've been quite fulfilled, so much so that I've started to contemplate a career change for when I return to the U.S. So to not have that joy for the next six weeks left me feeling bereft.

The other experienced teachers tell me that students will be at school everyday this summer. Some of them, e.g., the prefecture's (nation's?) entire fourth grade population, will be doing summer school for math whereas others will just come to school to play with their friends. (Before moving here, I couldn't understand why kids would want to come to school during the summer. But now that I realize that many of them live in apartment buildings and that there isn't enough space for them to play, it makes sense.) And today I was informed about a neighborhood fair for my school's students that will occur this Sunday afternoon and evening at the school for which teachers are encouraged to work. So while I will not get into the habit that many Japanese teachers have of working seven days a week, I think I will work during half or all of the festival so that I can spend some more time with the kids.

Until next time...