Brenda in Japan

Hailing from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Brenda McKinney is an American living and working in the Kansai region of Japan. This is an account of her life and adventures among the fine people of Nihon.

Monday, November 27, 2006

The Nurse Is In

I am sick and the nurse wants me to come have some special tea. I love that they give tea as a medicine. The tea I am supposed to drink is called yuzu and is made from a type of small orange (green in color). I have been told the Japanese also put the oranges (or fruit) in the bathtub sometimes to help heal the body.
So the nurse’s room at my school is huge and they have a million plants everywhere. I sometimes go out of my way to walk down the hallway near the nurse's office because I find the plants so soothing. Furthermore, the nurse plays calming music for the sick kids (almost like a nursery) and they have several real beds (all with curtains for privacy) for people to rest. I would have been there ALL THE TIME if the nurses office was that posh when I was in high school. I am even excited to go now, and I am an adult.
Wether I am healthy or not, I think I might start hang out in the nurse's office more regularly to practice some Japanese. There are two female nurses where I work, and they are both really sweet, but only one speaks English (which is probably good for me). The one that doesn’t speak English is apparently a slalom skier, though, and I might go skiing with her this winter (provided I ever recover from this blasted cold). For now, she might be the perfect person to practice Japanese with, though, since we don't have the option of switching to English. And they will probably give me more tea:)

Limited Internet - No computer this week

I finally brought my computer into the Apple Store in Osaka this weekend and
they confirmed there is something really wrong wtih it. They are actually
going to give me a new one, but I have to come back in a week. SO, I have
no computer this week.
Kudos to Apple for amazing International support, but also scary that my NEW computer broke so quickly! That thing is my baby. I will be happy to get the computer back, but I hope the new one is not Japanese :-P

Interesting Weekend

Thanksgiving
My American friend Katie, who lives about three and a half hours away, came to visit for the weekend. Living in the boonies, she gets out as much as possible, and this was a good weekend to come through considering it was Thanksgiving.
American Thanksgiving and the Japanese Labour Thanksgiving Day (a holiday honoring labor, always on the same date) luckily fell on the same day this year, so nobody had to work on Thursday. A friend in Harimacho held a Thanksgiving potluck, which was amazingly delicious. We had a traditional American feast with a lot of food sent from America, but it was about half Japanese people and about a third of the invited guests couldn’t come, so it felt a little weird. Listening to rap during dinner was a bit of a change, too. It brought me back to my first Thanksgiving away from home in Oslo, when Joe and I invited our American friends from around the country for dinner. I think we used curtains as a tablecloth and ate chicken instead of Turkey (purchased at OBS, of all places), but it was fun. Natsukashi…
Friday was normal. Katie was in Osaka for the day and I had to work (graded notebooks almost all afternoon). Then Katie, Kelly and I went to an Izakaya (Japanese-style restaurant where you can order a lot of different things and share) at night.
An Afternoon on Mount Rokko
I finally ran with Takiko on Saturday morning, and she showed me a waterfront running path near my house and a beautiful temple a few kilometers away. It was fun. Katie and I spent Saturday afternoon in Kobe. I’ve been trying to get to the Kobe Fashion Museum forever to check out the French prints exhibition (I wanted to see the same exhibit in Chicago last year, but didn’t have enough time), but when we checked with tourist information in Sannomiya (central Kobe) we found out that the exhibit had ended a month ago. Frustrating, but teaches you to not procrastinate!
Instead of the museum, Katie and I headed over to Mt. Rokko, a famous mountain in the Kobe Area. We took the cable car up the mountain (like in Bergen) and spent the last of the daylight hours exploring the area. I especially liked the little Christmas town we discovered (even though I know it was a tourist trap), and the view of the city below (‘the Million Dollar View’ of Kobe) was breathtaking. Definitely worth the trip. We would have stayed longer, but we had to get back to a barbecue that a Japanese woman in my community was hosting.
Romeo & Juliet... in Swahili?
Sunday was fun. While having dinner with my neighbors, Jane (British) and Chigusa (Japanese), last week, Jane and I discovered that Chigusa had studied Swahili – of all languages – in college (she’s a high school English teacher)! We were so excited about this fact that Chigusa invited us to a cultural festival at her old college, the Osaka University of Foreign languages, this weekend. Jane couldn’t go, but I went and got to see Romeo and Juliet in Swahili. It was really good, except it completely threw me when they switched the entire cast halfway through (except for Juliet’s father, whose potbelly was an inner-tube in this guy’s shirt). They probably did it so that everyone in the program could be involved, or so the lines were easier to remember, but it was still confusing. I obviously did not understand a word, but I know the story so I really enjoyed the production and I liked that they used music from the Claire Danes/Leonardo DiCaprio movie. After the play, we hit up the food bazaar. I spoke Norwegian with some Japanese students of Danish who were selling ‘poelse’ (hotdogs) and got to see the Korean national costume for the first time. We were going to see Oliver (the English production) later in the day, but I had to get to the Apple Store and wasn’t feeling well, so we went home early and I was in bed by 6:00 on Sunday.

New Wheels

After three months on the old granny bike, I finally retired my old wheels for a newer, cooler, prettier model. I inherited my old bike from another expat. It was about 10 years old, completely rusted and the wheel was bent. It wasn’t until it was stolen, then brought back (well, or I found it a little ways away, near the train tracks, hours after discovering it missing) and the back tire was destroyed that I decided to get a new bike.
After a lot of research (type A shining thru here), I finally got the new bike. I realized today the dark forest green is the same color as my favorite car color (dark green or burgundy). Then again, I suppose the bike is sort of my car in Japan (unless I do get the pink Honda moped I have been eyeing after all), so I guess it makes sense the color matches. It also has a dark brown wicker, basket and an automatic light, so I'm all set.
Anyways, big day for me and something else I have to be grateful for on Thanksgiving. Happy Holidays… hope yours was great, too!

The Race of a Lifetime

I was not going to tell anyone because if I do there is a pressure there and because I find it extremely frightening, but I have been toying with the idea of running a marathon. Not what the Japanese call a marathon (any old race), but a marathon in the Greek meaning. It’s weird to think of myself as a runner. While I am out there and pushing myself to achieve a little more each time, however, I feel great… and I think this might be the time to do it.
Japan apparently has one of the biggest running cultures in the world, but everyone runs on treadmills, so you wouldn’t know it living here. I also need to get into better shape and find a running buddy. Training is supposed to be impossible if you do it all alone. I am supposed to go running with a Japanese friend soon, but I am really self-conscious of my running. I have done it for years, but Kat is the only person I have really only run regularly with. I have always jogged outside, and but I usually run because I find it therapeutic. I use music, my thoughts or the news (oh, MPR…I miss you!) to keep me company and almost see it as meditation. It’s time for my to be alone to think and reflect. I ran with Mike while he was here (after a struggle on my part), and it was fun and I could keep up with him. Considering the last time I ran with him was freshman year and I had mono, it was a nice surprise to learn I could handle it…especially since that was just before his first marathon. So maybe I can and should start running with people to push myself a little more and gain more confidence about running in groups.

Once I get over this cold, I might see if Takiko (the friend) is up for it. She ran her first marathon in March, so it might help to have some guidance from her, especially since the diet is different here and I am not sure how to tailor my menus to a normal training schedule. And it would be fun to get into a routine with running and get to know her better. I’ll keep you posted on the marathon!

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Wow, only in Japan...

A few weeks ago, I went to a birthday party in Osaka. To make a long story short, my purse strap broke, so I ended up buying a new one and carried the old one (and the heavier things in my purse) in a shopping bag.

Well, somewhere around 4:30am, I lost the bag. I am not sure if I left it in front of the McDonalds we stopped at or in\\ the Shinsaibashi bathroom station, but it did not really matter. It was gone.

Or so I thought.

Today I get a call at work from the Himeji Police Department. They have my purse, and found me by looking up the name on my Intl Drivers License (and then where I work). It's been about a week since the bag disappearance, and Himeji is about one and a half hours from Osaka. Yet everything was in the bag....

You hear stories of people losing their wallets and having them mailed to them (cash included), but the magic of Japan truly hits home when it happens to you. I am impressed.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Let the notebooks begin...

In an earlier post, I mentioned the difficulties I am having with the discipline scheme, or possibly discipline in general, in my new position. In addition to discipline, one of the other big challenges I am facing in walking into this line of work is grading homework. This is not the first time I have taught (although the first time in a formal public school setting) and not my first time assigning grades, even on homework for older students. A few summers ago, I worked as a credit teacher for high school students of Norwegian at Concordia Language Villages. This is an accredited program that offers students actual high school credit for completing an intensive summer-language course. I have worked at the language villages for several years and have had experience with teaching languages, but one of the biggest challenges for me in that position was giving grades. I felt so horrible giving students who I really tried to support a bad grade. It wasn’t until my senpei (Japanese for superior, or mentor-figure) sat me down and made me realize that it was not me giving a student a bad grade, but the student giving themselves a bad grade, that I was able to get over it and grow as a sensei. I have also been a TA, but the good thing with economics and grammar is that numbers and structure don’t lie; all I had to do then was identify whether or not the student got the pattern (and mark it wrong if they didn’t).
Work is going well, but my current project is correcting the journals I assign for all the first graders. I know 300 journals (at 100 or more words a pop) is a LOT to go through, but I love reading and commenting on each one. I don't mind taking the time to give them real corrections and grammatical explanations, either, because I feel like I am helping them and the notebooks represent a window into this world I want to know (maybe for them, too, as they have the chance to engage in dialogue with me).
On the topic of communication, I also just had a really nice class with the third-graders (seniors). We were working on letters for a cultural/language-exchange I am planning with an American High School, so I got some free time to talk to some of the students while they were writing. I am generally opposed to using any Japanese at all in school, but I have to admit life is a lot easier if I allow just a few words. The students seem more motivated when communication is a bit easier and the conversation flows more fluidly. I learn more Japanese, too, which is not the goal in class, but at least the students get more English speaking-practice in. And I get to know the students better. I really like them, but there is definitely a barrier there (literally the language barrier) and I desperately want to break through it... I know these students are people and more than just the uniforms and homework... and I want to know who they are. It’s just difficult at times, so the journals and short conversation opportunities provide an outlet to talk.
Even with the grades, and I am probably an easy grader, I hope they like class; I try to make it more about games and the fun of learning than just another subject. I hope the students find this motivation in their homework, as well. While they are getting writing practice, I get rich cultural tidbits. In a way, it’s a win-win situation (although I don’t know if the students would agree…).

Monday, November 20, 2006

Busted

Busted
There is an emergency meeting of all first-grade teachers right now. Because I don't speak Japanese (well, ok, and I'm not really a first grade teacher) I was a little (totally) confused about the commotion until I found out what happened. Apparently, three boys brought cigarettes to school today and one was caught smoking in the boy’s room. I know who they are and I actually like these kids, but they are part of a stereotype: they are smart but maybe use their brains more to get themselves out of trouble rather than on their homework.
Anyways, everyone is bustling around and just ran out to an emergency staff meeting about how they should handle the issue. I can't believe the boys actually smoked at school. I am curious to see what the verdict is...
The Sentence (2 Days later...)
The boy who actually smoked got suspended. Interestingly enough, the punishment is not as harsh as I would have expected. Students can be kicked off of a sports team (or club) for drinking/smoking, so I would say the punishment was actually comparable to what I would have expected to find in America (at least my high school). The one difference is that there is a school rule that students cannot be left alone at home in Japan. If the suspended individual's parents will not be home, for example, the student has to come to school so they are supervised (but they cannot interact with the other students).
Afterthought
I just find this topic interesting because I feel like you always hear that Japanese students are either extremely disciplined or that they are not disciplined at all. Yes, there may not be detention in the schools here, for example, but from my experience thus far, there is an equivalent. Students that are late have to fill out a form where they apologize and sign, their parents sign, their homeroom teacher signs, they give a breakdown of what they were doing the night before, AND they have to come to school early for three days and show the form to a teacher each day. That almost sounds worse than the American method. In short, I would say the standard strategy may be different, but I really don't think our discipline in THAT different.
If there are differences at all, however, I would argue that they lie in the fact that teachers, not parents, are considered more responsible for a child's discipline. If a teacher catches a student smoking or even working (which is against school rules) during the weekend, it is their responsibility to punish the student, not the parents. Parents will in fact call the school to get advice on how to reprimand poor behavior or to receive general support (putting the responsibility into the hands of the teachers). Big cultural difference; it might be best classified as a family structure/responsiblity difference.
As for the kid who smoked at school, I still can't say much. They have cigarette vending machines ALL OVER the place in Japan (easy access), but Japanese youth are expected to respect the legal age for smoking. I just hope the boy that got caught learned his lesson, and it doesn't happen again :-P

A Magical Evening in Lights

I just had one of the most mystical and magical experiences I think I might ever have in my time here in Japan. As a matter of fact, it might have been up there with one of the most spiritual experiences I can recall during my travels. I have had the fortunate opportunity and blessings to have been able to experience many things in my short (well, getting longer) days. The holy land and Chinese new year were some of the best. But the serenity of my time in Kyoto touched me in a deeper way. Maybe I am changing my view on this ancient city of ours...
This afternoon, I took the train over to Kyoto to meet up with a friend from my Target days, Andrea, and her boyfriend, Andres. Andrea and I were analysts in the same department at Target, but we left the company around the same time, and I haven’t actually seen her since she moved back to New York City last year.
We had a nice afternoon walking around in the city and ended up at an amazing and quaint little restaurant near the Gion area (Pontocho, actually, if you are familiar with the city). The establishments in this area are charming (albeit the potential for touristy joints) and it is a good place to go to catch a glimpse of a maiko or geisha. The restaurant we went to was a traditional Japanese-style place (the beautiful outer decore definately seduced us into going inside), where we had our own tatami (traditional Japanese floors – look like grass but made of bamboo) room overlooking the cobblestone street, with a narrow view of the river. It was my first time eating sukiyaki (cooked meat and veggies - cooked at our table) with local sake and beer and I was able to practice some Japanese.
I love the people I met in Japan, but there is something to say about seeing familiar faces in an unfamiliar place. I have been in Japan a few months now and am adjusting to the culture, but I was still elated to discuss the cultural differences with Andrea and get her perspective on the culture, food, fashion and language. Plus I missed hanging out with them! Both Andrea and Andres are wonderful people and I enjoyed the company. It was also a breath of fresh air to get out of town for a day. I feel like things have unnecessarily been getting somewhat dramatic where I live lately (perhaps another effect of the three-month hump or maybe people turning cold along with the weather?) and it was nice to leave my current sphere and spend time with people I know from a different setting.

So after dinner, we made our way through the narrow shop-lined streets to another area of town to check out the ‘Autumn Light Up’ at Kiyomizu-dera (Temple). I had stopped at the tourist office at Kyoto Station to grab a city map on my way into town, and the woman I spoke with told me about the event. For the next month, several (about 6 or 8) temples around Kyoto stay open late and tourists can visit and walk the sights by candlelight (Autumn Light Up!). The woman warned me that the temples may be busy, but when we arrived, I hardly noticed the crowds... what we discovered was more than I could have dreamed of expecting. It was spectacular.
Out of the temples we had the option of checking out, I thought Kiyomizu-dera would be the best because its beauty and tranquility touched me more deeply than any other site in Kyoto when I saw it with Mike this fall. The complex is huge so there is an opportunity to stroll along the hillside forest paths, the mountainous backdrop takes on a life of it’s own with the crisp and passionate colors of the fall leaves, and I thought the fountain of water famous for posessing those who drink it with healing properties was another bonus (although Andres did have a point that it looked like drainage from the rain rather than a waterfall)...
As soon as we stepped foot on the street leading up to Kiyomizu, we were immediately drawn to the site by a large spotlight coming from behind first orange pagoda. As we drew near and ascended the first set of steps leading to the temple complex, the light seriously seemed to cast a holy or angelic glow upon the stairs and buildings in front of us, all of which were lined with lanterns looking like Christmas luminaries. We stopped to try to take pictures, but really spent more time taking in the view. The soft rain peacefully falling in the light looked like snow, and all any of us could say to describe the scene was, ‘magical’.
As we were walking around the temple, soaking in the scenery and atmosphere (and ignoring the rain), I kept thinking that it really was almost like something out of a dream (especially considering I was walking around Kyoto, late on a Sunday night, through a temple in the forest... and with Andrea of all people...random). But it was a lot of fun, something unexpected and very appreciated, and definitely moving. I tried several (many) times to capture the experience on digital film, but none of the pictures would do the experience justice, so I put down the camera and enjoyed my time there for what it was. We were just lucky to have heard about it! It is also amazing to be someplace that you know can only be truly appreciated and lived when done in person.

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Yakuza

If you have ever seen the Harry Potter movies, or read the books, you may know about an evil character known as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, or Voldemort. The premise behind this character is that he is so horrible, so evil, that even uttering his name can bring misfortune (and should be avoided!).
While this seems a little dramatic, I just experienced something that makes me wonder if J.K. Rowling ever spent time in Japan or did research on this culture when composing the storyline. I know she sampled from Norse mythology when writing her stories (an obvious example being the half-wolf character, Fenrir), but the reaction I received when asking about a certain sector of the Japanese community this afternoon could be compared to nothing less than what I perceived Voldemert would elicit. The word was Yakuza.
I have heard you can spot a member of the Yakuza-the Japanese version of the mafia-by their blue tattoos and the sunglasses they wear. I have been told the Yakuza's legacy goes as far as 400 years back (although I think the group is an amalgamation of different organized crime groups from throughout Japanese history), and - as I discovered - members are still highly feared (possibly revered?) in modern society. Things are getting better now, but some traditional bathhouses and even gyms, for example, will not let you use their services if you have tattoos because of the stigma behind them.
So during the afternoon last week, I was just standing with two colleagues, not talking about anything specific. Then somehow the topic changed, although I am not sure how or why, and I said the word 'Yakuza'. The conversation stopped right then and there. Both of the women I was speaking to hushed me, and one sat down. Then they looked nervously around, which made ME a little nervous.. wondering WHY. Ummmm, do we WORK with the mafia?
When I questioned the reaction (partially out of sheer curiousity and shock), my colleague warned me never say that word out loud again. She said they are not nice people and might hurt me if they hear me say their name. So I apologized (earnestly - I didn't know!) and went back to my desk. I explained to another lady I work with what had just happened and asked - a little confused - if we are not supposed to talk about 'them'. Do we ignore them? What do you call them? Will they really hurt you for saying their name? She seemed less concerned with the topic and taught me another, more polite name to use for this club, but it was still in a whispered tone.
If you don't hear from me for a few weeks, maybe I was not supposed to write about them either. Ok, maybe not funny, but what an interesting reaction. See the Voldemort connection?!

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Japan is better than Canada....

... worse than the US, and noone beats Norway.  That's right, the U.N. Development Program standard of living survey was released this week.

Japan returned to the Top 10 best countries to live in, moving up 6 spots from # 11 in 2005, while Norway (my other home-away-from-home) was # 1 for the 6th year in a row. While this might be true, Oslo and Tokyo, two notorious cities in Norway and Japan, generally end up in first and second place for the 'world's most expensive city.'

I guess you get what you pay for ;)

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20061111a3.html

Tsunami Alerts - but no harm done!! We're ok!

I got a nervous phonecall from my boyfriend a few hours ago, asking about the tsunami that hit off the coast of Japan. Alerts were issued after an 8.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the northern coast, but there have not been reports of any danger yet. I did receive an email from an embassy-info listserve informing people living on or near the coasts of (the northern island of) Hokkaido to get to higher areas and the tsunami alert is the top story on CNN.COM right now, but otherwise, no reason to be concerned.
The idea of earthquakes is actually quite frightening to me (ironic I moved to the country that has over 20% of the world's earthquakes, then, huh?). However, after all the media surrounding the tsunami in southeast asia two years ago and since I started doing a little personal research and visiting earthquake museums and information sites in the area, I feel more comfortable and prepared for something actually happening. I still hope it never does, but it is still better to be safe than sorry.
I wrote a blog on this topic after my visit to Shinsaikoen (the Earthquake Park museum on Awaji Island), where they preserved the Nojima faultline after it - along with several other faults - shifted and shook the area during the 1995 7.2-magnitude Hanshin earthwuake. The museum was interesting, but it was a little surreal to be standing on the seams of the earth. I'll post the blog soon.

Monday, November 13, 2006

The New Love Doc on the Block?

I am not sure if I signed up or if I was roped in, but I am now the regular columnist of a relationship advice column for a local expat newspaper. It only goes out to people in my prefecture, but there are a few hundred of us. Yes, I know, I know... not exactly Carrie Bradshaw, right? I was extremely skeptical at first, but now I am warming up to the idea of writing this column and am starting to like adding something a little different and fun to my new routine.
While there is not much‘research’ on my side (not the type from S&C, at least), I've just been sharing thoughts and info on whatever I feel like lately. For my recent article on konpa, or group blind dating in Japan (yeah, I thought it was weird, too, hence the article this month), I interviewed a few people and opened a few more doors in the mysteries shrouding the Japanese culture.
The original idea was that people would send in questions, however, which I would answer. But since that has not been happening, thought I would ask: anyone out there have anything to be solved? It might be published, but not for many, and you'd be saving me from making up questions...eek...

It's Rice Field. Brave Love Rice Field.

When I first arrived in Japan, one of the immediate 'official matters' I had to attend to was ordering my hanko, or stamp. Everyone in Japan has a hanko with his or her name on it and it is generally used in place of a signature. I guess the system can be compared to the seals used by dignitaries and such during the middle ages. Your hanko is very personal and it needs to be registered with the government, so it is also very official.

Japan has three main alphabets, one of which is used exclusively for foreign words (katakana). Because I myself am foreign, my name is usually sounded out using this foreign-word alphabet and my personal stamp (inkan) reflects this, reading 'Bu-re-n-da' (I go by Brenda, rather than my last name, as most Japanese people do).

Last week, however, I got a new stamp in the mail. My kanji stamp! Kanji is another of the three alphabets. My new kanji name still reads the same as my first name, but the three kanji (Chinese characters) it is composed of mean: 1) brave, 2) love, and 3) rice field. I find it kind of funny that my new Japanese name is Brave Love Rice Field, but I am told this is very beautiful. I will still be using my katakana stamp for important matters (official forms, the bank, etc), but I am happy about the new stamp! Feel free to call me Rice Field for short;)

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Discrimination

The scene
On my walk from he train station to my school this morning, I passed a middle school student in an alleyway. I always see students walking and I could tell where this boy went to school by his uniform and bag. As I was walking past the student, he turned toward me and almost jumped when seeing me. He just kept staring intensely. So I smile and said, ‘good morning’ in English (since he could end up being my student in April), with a slight bow. I am a fast walker, so I just kept going and was surprised when I realized he was approaching me quickly, possibly jogging. He was now walking next to me, staring at my face again. He asked me where I was going. Who was I?
I told him I was an English teacher. 'Watashi wa eigo no kyoshi des.’
‘ALT?,’ he asks?
Yes. I am an ALT at Takasago Minami.
All of a suddenly, he starts aggressively saying something about kyo (today) and itte (go).
Kyo…Itte… HOME! Go home. Now! Go home. Today. GO HOME.
He is pointing toward the way I came and pretty much yelling. I would have thought he was drunk were it not 7:45am and he was not 13 and on the way to school. I calmly told him ‘no’ several times and kept walking until I had to turn, not truly responding to his actions.
My reaction
I have been harassed before, but I have never been the direct victim of racial discrimination, so I am not exactly sure how to react. My gender has provoked issues (even physical), especially in the Middle East. There was also an incident while I was a student in Norway where I was on a subway car that was gassed by a neo-nazi gang; but, even then, I was part of a larger group and was not the direct aim of the attack. The gas turned out to be fire extinguishers and everyone was fine. An arab man even kicked me (hard) across my back once for speaking harshly to a man. But this still feels different; it was direct and in my face and this kid - a student - was shouting. Too close to home.
The situation
I told one of my colleagues about the experience and she was as shocked as I am. While I sometimes feel that being a gaijin (foreigner) can elicit reactions ranging anywhere from scum to superstar status, Americans are generally welcomed in Japan and discrimination of this sort is rare.

Friday, November 10, 2006

War - Ruminations

Strange coincidence this morning. You know how music can suddenly just speak to you? Like maybe you are mad and that Fiona Apple beat you kind of like takes on a whole new meaning? This morning, I was awoken at about 6am with a phonecall telling me Rumsfeld had resigned. Those that know me well know I take an interest in politics, although I am usually pretty PC about where my real views lie. I do appreciate the updates, though.
So after the call, a song popped into my head and I simply could not purge it despite my best attempts. You know it: 'Right here, right now, there is no other place I’d rather be. Right here Right now, Watching the World Wake up to History.’ It was random, but it felt significant enough to share. It's like the soundtrack of my life, in a way.
On the subject of being right here, right now, though… I have been doing a lot of self-reflection lately. I think part of it has to do with my self-proclaimed ‘quarter-life crisis’ surrounding my upcoming 25th birthday. I can clearly remember thinking that ‘after 25, you are just old.’ If the last 5 years flew by so fast, does that mean I am going to be 30 before I know it? It’s not that adulthood is bad. I like it. It’s just hard to stop thinking of yourself as not being really young. The other issue has to do with vision, vocation and passion. When I came to Japan, I left my old life - amazing job I loved with great mentors, wonderful friends; living NEAR my boyfriend & my family - to enter a place where I (like everything around me) am foreign. I jumped into the gray unknown, headfirst. Am I doing the right thing? Did I make a mistake? What if I don’t get into graduate school? And is there purpose to what I am doing?
Maybe I sound a little anal and this is getting personal, but these are big questions. You can’t live your life with what-if’s, and that is partially – or maybe mostly - why I came to Japan. I guess no matter what I left behind or where I am going, the important part is that I am still moving forward, right? And for the record, it was a scary jump but I think I did the right thing. I might be chasing an unrealistic vision, but there is a sane enough balance between the idealistic side of me and the realistic side to figure things out.
Ok, so running around in a witch’s costume for a group of little kids does seem like ‘wasting time’, but honestly.. I would (and do) do what I am doing here at home, too. Getting involved with the community, promoting cultural awareness and having a load of fun working with kids is not something to be ashamed of in my book. Espcially when it means I am pursuing things that are truly important to me. The honeymoon period is wearing off and the ‘three-month’ hump is definitely hitting, but I am – and will be – alright...

Then again, maybe I should be a little concerned. The other song stuck in my head today is REM’s, ‘It’s the end of the world as we know it….’

Universal Studios Japan

For a girl from the midwestern United States (which is about as far away from Florida and Cali as you can get), going on a field trip to Disneyland or Universal Studios is a childhood dream. Sure, we all have our local amusement parks, but I never heard anyone say they were going to Valleyfair after winning an Olympic medal.
Last week, I was lucky enough to accompany the first year students on an all-day field trip to Universal Studios Japan (USJ) in Osaka. USJ is celebrating it's 5 year anniversary this year, so they were also showcasing a half
Japanese/half English adapted-version of the musical WICKED, which was enough in itself to convince me.
Amusement parks in Japan (in general) are really an experience in themselves. I have been to Tokyo Disneyand twice and can attest the impression did not change. The Japanese versions of Universal Studios (USJ) and Disney are pretty much identical to the American versions, except they are slightly smaller (to scale) and everything is in Japanese. I mean everything – from the rides (dubbed) to the street signs. They are also usually jam-packed with Japanese tourists running around like crazy, buying a million souvenirs (elmo hats were huge on my trip) and going on rides (2 plus hour wait for Spiderma...grr).
The first time I went to Tokyo Disney, my friends and I were literally the only westerners in the park, and it took us a while to figure out what was going on on rides because the guides speak Japanese (the first ride we went on was Jungle Book and we didn’t understand why all of the other safari-goers were freaking out until a hippo ‘tried to sink us’, for example). This time, I had to read Arnold's lips to figure out what Terminator was going to do.
I know these places are cheesy and bring out the inner-child, but I had a great time and loved being able to spend more time with the first-graders. I was also happy to finally see part of he musical Wicked. I read the book and couldn't get Wicked tickets in Minneapolis before I came, so I had been looking forward to going for a while and now I just want to see the full production. the score was amazing.
Next time you are in Japan, you should go to a theme park. Even if you are not big into the Disney hoopla, I think it is a cultural experience (and one tip: just try to go on he rides as a 'single' to surpass the lines).

Stepping into the Disciplinary's Shoes

After 3 months, I am in the thick of my routine. I pretty much do all my own lesson plans (with guidance from other 1st grade teachers), I talk/teach for most of class, now I get to teach alone if a teacher is gone, and today I disciplined a kid for the first time. It seems like a far cry from what some of my friends here have been doing in their jobs. One of them was sick and couldn’t go to school for over a week – but only missed two classes. I know others work really hard (maybe harder and on weekends), but it is not always the norm. Having to do the discipline is what really hit me, though.
Japanese students are notorious for talking or sleeping during class, so I have my students (usually 20 per class) sit so their desks all face the middle and I can see all of them (and they can see each other). It really helps, but today - as I was talking - I noticed a lazor on someone's face. I gave the kid with the red light on his forehead a small ‘warning’ look without anyone seeing (he and his friends were laughing about it) and then warned them not to do it again when I handed them worksheets a few minutes later. When the lazor came out as we were doing peer-practice 10 minutes later (this time I saw the light AND the pen), though, I discreetly took the pen away and stuck it in my pocket.
I didn't want to tell the teachers because punishment here can be more severe (yelling, coming early in the morning, cleaning or greeting other students - and this is usually for make-up, cell phone or riding 2 on a bike) so I decided to tell the kid's homeroom teacher. In Japan, each class (of about 40 students) sticks together and teachers move from class to class (rather than students moving from room-to-room for different teachers). The homeroom teacher is the staff representative for each class (there are usually one or two 'head' students in each, too) and the students see this teacher every morning and every afternoon. It's their go-between or contact, so telling this teacher was the closest I could get to the kid without getting him in BIG trouble. Anyways, after a little langauge practice, I called the kid out of homeroom (guess how much more scared he was when I knew his name), told him I never wanted to see the lazor again and -in Japanese - told him I was only telling his homeroom teacher. Whew.
I have a friend who I suspect was an amazing teacher, but left teaching for business after a year. He loved the students and teaching the subject he had, but he hated the discipline. Maybe I can see why... but then again, I am glad to be in my situation rather than not having anything to do.