I leave tomorrow for Thailand. No idea how much time I'll have and if I'll want to post anything during my time there. I return the 9th of January, so look for something to come up that mid-week.
良いお年を (Happy New Year's in Japanese)
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
The changing of the (Cell Phone) Guard
My cell phone endured much pain. In fact, I think I dropped it more than anything else I can remember in my life. It was a warrior. This past weekend, it could not handle the fierce colds and snows of Hokkaido. I took it up the mountain in my jacket, and although it survived the 1st run, I decided to wrap it in a bag for the second run, and pulled it out of that soaking wet for some reason. My only thought is that the bag was from a warm environment, and when wrapping it up, warm air got caught in the bag and bringing it from 20 degrees celcius to -10 degrees celcius, the moisture in the air came out in the form of water, and since my cellphone was wrapped in this bag, it became like wrapping one's phone in a bag of water.
Does that theory sound appropriate? I think so. Now that I think about it, I could test it by doing the same here and seeing if it happened. Anybody smarter than me want to take a shot at another theory or agree with mine?
Regardless, here's my old phone (these are pictures of the internet, not my actual phone).
It used to be the superiority of its class: It had a 2.1 megapixel camera, it was sleek, came in black, silver or blue (the color I picked), and could be used in English or Japanese. Also with an external display, this keitai (cell phone in Japanese) was a trooper. The camera broke actually a couple of months ago, but even then, everything else worked despite constant torture and harm.
I went to the DoCoMo store to talk to Kyoko, the one and only DoCoMo girl on getting a new phone. Options for Mova (more coverage than Foma, although DoCoMo is trying to promote Foma since it's got much more options and gadgets, although it's coverage is still sub-par compared to Mova or AU, another cell phone brand). That being said, I insisted on Mova, and she brought out my options. Here's the phone that I picked:
This one's pretty wild. It's a fat square basically. Doesn't look like a keitai at all. Has a horizontal display (very cool actually), all the usual functions (a crappy 1.3megapixel camera but at least it works!), the ability to not only listen to the radio but also play mp3's (yeah, I know, I already have an mp3 player, but this is conventient as well, no), but here's the kicker: It's only available with Japanese directions and such. Therefore, I have now successfully forced myself to use my keitai solely in Japanese, zero English. Very good. Also, another advantage is that it was free since I've been a DoCoMo phone-holder for over 10 months (the other options were about 5000 and 7000yen). Even better was since I'm friends with Kyoko she gave me a used charger cable for free, thus avoiding an additional 1800yen.
So the only cost I will pay is the 2000yen for deactivating my old phone and activating the new one. So roughly twenty dollars to switch phones. Not a bad choice considering the options I think!
Does that theory sound appropriate? I think so. Now that I think about it, I could test it by doing the same here and seeing if it happened. Anybody smarter than me want to take a shot at another theory or agree with mine?
Regardless, here's my old phone (these are pictures of the internet, not my actual phone).
It used to be the superiority of its class: It had a 2.1 megapixel camera, it was sleek, came in black, silver or blue (the color I picked), and could be used in English or Japanese. Also with an external display, this keitai (cell phone in Japanese) was a trooper. The camera broke actually a couple of months ago, but even then, everything else worked despite constant torture and harm.
I went to the DoCoMo store to talk to Kyoko, the one and only DoCoMo girl on getting a new phone. Options for Mova (more coverage than Foma, although DoCoMo is trying to promote Foma since it's got much more options and gadgets, although it's coverage is still sub-par compared to Mova or AU, another cell phone brand). That being said, I insisted on Mova, and she brought out my options. Here's the phone that I picked:
This one's pretty wild. It's a fat square basically. Doesn't look like a keitai at all. Has a horizontal display (very cool actually), all the usual functions (a crappy 1.3megapixel camera but at least it works!), the ability to not only listen to the radio but also play mp3's (yeah, I know, I already have an mp3 player, but this is conventient as well, no), but here's the kicker: It's only available with Japanese directions and such. Therefore, I have now successfully forced myself to use my keitai solely in Japanese, zero English. Very good. Also, another advantage is that it was free since I've been a DoCoMo phone-holder for over 10 months (the other options were about 5000 and 7000yen). Even better was since I'm friends with Kyoko she gave me a used charger cable for free, thus avoiding an additional 1800yen.
So the only cost I will pay is the 2000yen for deactivating my old phone and activating the new one. So roughly twenty dollars to switch phones. Not a bad choice considering the options I think!
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Hokkaido - The Adventure, Pt. II
First off, where is Hokkaido? Well, it is the northernmost prefecture in Japan (the BIG island).
Here is a map of Japan with Hokkaido being in dark blue. Okayama is in Chugoku region (light blue), roughly between Hiroshima and Osaka (Okayama's eastern border is the border with Hyogo Prefecture which is in the red kansai region).
We landed at Chitose and took a bus (over 3 hours) from there to Hirafu, the name of the ski resort in Niseko.
On the way to the ski resort, we stopped at a rest stop at a little after 5pm to a really funny site: Tons of high schoolers frolicking in the snow, complete with boys throwing snowballs and girls in short skirts screaming. Turns out (I asked) they were from Oita prefecture, 2nd year students on their school trip, and for many of them, their first time seeing snow. They were absolutely thrilled. We took some pictures and marveled at the willpower of the girls to wear school uniforms, i.e. short skirts, in such cold weather. Here's a picture of Sarah with the ladies on the little hilltop.
Finally we arrived at Hirafu. There was only one other person with us on the bus. Actually, here's a funny story: We reserved seats on the bus such that they knew we were coming and just in case it was full. We got on and there is one other foreign looking male and us. We wait. It is past the departure time for the bus when two asian males get on the bus. How fitting, comments Sarah, that for as punctual as Japanese usually are, here's juxtaposition with a bus of foreigners waiting on the Japanese. This theory held up until about 5 minutes in when finally one of them spoke up quite loudly and we all realized that it was definitely not Japanese, but Chinese that came out of his mouth. Oops.
So we call Morio, who is the owner of "Log Kanon" where we were staying, and have him come and pick us up. He was very low-key and helpful, and didn't feed us with the usual BS of most Japanese people hosting foreigners. All in all, a perfect and wise choice by Sarah (albeit convenient since it was the cheapest by far out of all the possible lodgings at Hirafu, and why I don't know because it was seriously comfortable, warm, and homey).
It only being about 7pm, we decided to suit up and go for some home-schooling lessons on how to snowboard from Sarah. It was quite cold but I had bought a snowsuit for 4000yen (roughly forty dollars) from Daiki (used to be DIK, a do-it-yourself hardware store in Tamano), so I was totally warm and cozy despite sub-zero temperatures (in celcius), and some awesome snow falling everywhere. Here is me on one of my runs down the little hill we were using as a practice ground.
On the way back, I got a nice shot of the slopes from the bend in the road right before our log cabin.
I cannot begin to express how much snow there was, and how hard it was snowing all day Saturday and Sunday. I was just flat out amazed/impressed, and this was still considered the "pre-season". The season actually starts on December 22nd so the slopes and everything was not very crowded at all, and overall seemed a little bit like a ghost resort almost except that everything was fabulous.
Here is a map of Japan with Hokkaido being in dark blue. Okayama is in Chugoku region (light blue), roughly between Hiroshima and Osaka (Okayama's eastern border is the border with Hyogo Prefecture which is in the red kansai region).
We landed at Chitose and took a bus (over 3 hours) from there to Hirafu, the name of the ski resort in Niseko.
On the way to the ski resort, we stopped at a rest stop at a little after 5pm to a really funny site: Tons of high schoolers frolicking in the snow, complete with boys throwing snowballs and girls in short skirts screaming. Turns out (I asked) they were from Oita prefecture, 2nd year students on their school trip, and for many of them, their first time seeing snow. They were absolutely thrilled. We took some pictures and marveled at the willpower of the girls to wear school uniforms, i.e. short skirts, in such cold weather. Here's a picture of Sarah with the ladies on the little hilltop.
Finally we arrived at Hirafu. There was only one other person with us on the bus. Actually, here's a funny story: We reserved seats on the bus such that they knew we were coming and just in case it was full. We got on and there is one other foreign looking male and us. We wait. It is past the departure time for the bus when two asian males get on the bus. How fitting, comments Sarah, that for as punctual as Japanese usually are, here's juxtaposition with a bus of foreigners waiting on the Japanese. This theory held up until about 5 minutes in when finally one of them spoke up quite loudly and we all realized that it was definitely not Japanese, but Chinese that came out of his mouth. Oops.
So we call Morio, who is the owner of "Log Kanon" where we were staying, and have him come and pick us up. He was very low-key and helpful, and didn't feed us with the usual BS of most Japanese people hosting foreigners. All in all, a perfect and wise choice by Sarah (albeit convenient since it was the cheapest by far out of all the possible lodgings at Hirafu, and why I don't know because it was seriously comfortable, warm, and homey).
It only being about 7pm, we decided to suit up and go for some home-schooling lessons on how to snowboard from Sarah. It was quite cold but I had bought a snowsuit for 4000yen (roughly forty dollars) from Daiki (used to be DIK, a do-it-yourself hardware store in Tamano), so I was totally warm and cozy despite sub-zero temperatures (in celcius), and some awesome snow falling everywhere. Here is me on one of my runs down the little hill we were using as a practice ground.
On the way back, I got a nice shot of the slopes from the bend in the road right before our log cabin.
I cannot begin to express how much snow there was, and how hard it was snowing all day Saturday and Sunday. I was just flat out amazed/impressed, and this was still considered the "pre-season". The season actually starts on December 22nd so the slopes and everything was not very crowded at all, and overall seemed a little bit like a ghost resort almost except that everything was fabulous.
Hokkaido - The Adventure, Pt. I
So this past weekend, I went to Hokkaido to go snowboarding for the first time in my life. Why did I choose to go? Well, my good friend Sarah (who's picture you will see below) told me about it at a fall bbq sometime back in September. They were use 誕生日切符 or birthday tickets, which are 12,500yen one-way, or for Japan, a deal.
Due to some strange problems or rather inconveniences, the plan was to fly out of Okayama on Saturday morning, and return through Kansai on Monday night, but as usual, things didn't go as planned but this was not for the worse actually.
First off, who did I go with? I went with my two Interac (another program which sends foreigners to Japan to teach) friends: Sarah and Rosey (shown below).
We all stayed overnight at Sarah's house northwest of the city, rode into the city on train then got on the bus (490yen one-way) to Okayama's airport. We did this carrying all of our luggage and borrowed (at least in Rosey's and my case) snowboards and boots. A little bit cumbersome, but possible and done nonetheless.
Sarah did all of the planning (she was playing the role of big sister), so she bought the tickets. She might have been complaining about something in this picture, but this shows the flight (379) in the background to Sapporo as well as the amount of stuff each of us was approximately carrying.
Now off to our gate! We bought Omiyage (presents usually representative of a place/prefecture visited) for Taka, who was a Japanese near-pro snowboarder who was going to come and join us on Sunday (unfortunately there was so much snow on Saturday and Sunday that he mailed that morning to say it was too dangerous to drive up to the mountain).
On the way, we came across this priceless view of the hedges spelling out OKAY(ama)!
Don't have much to say for the plane ride other than it was packed. Why? Because there is only one flight a day leaving Okayama for Sapporo. Just one. It being a weekend too, yep, as you would imagine, it was packed. I had an interesting discussion with Sarah on how her father asks her questions about her vacation such as: How packed was the plane? Or how far from the city center was the hotel, and was breakfast free, and if so, continental or western? I consider these normal and imformative vacation questions whereas Sarah preferred the classics: How was your vacation? And did you have a good time?
Here was our first view of snow, from the video screen on the plane showing the movement of the plane and descent (this is supposed to lessen the effects of motion sickness because you have visual cues of movement to supplement those that your inner ear feels).
Then it was off to the bus to go to the mountain in Niseko. Times and all had already been researched on the web, so there was no hastle, struggle or stress, allowing us to dine at Mos Burger. Here is what Mos Burger's burger menu looks like.
This is a picture of the first witnessed snow. Walking outside we realized a bitter truth, it was ridiculously cold in Hokkaido, even moreso than the already annoying biting cold temperatures of Okayama.
Due to some strange problems or rather inconveniences, the plan was to fly out of Okayama on Saturday morning, and return through Kansai on Monday night, but as usual, things didn't go as planned but this was not for the worse actually.
First off, who did I go with? I went with my two Interac (another program which sends foreigners to Japan to teach) friends: Sarah and Rosey (shown below).
We all stayed overnight at Sarah's house northwest of the city, rode into the city on train then got on the bus (490yen one-way) to Okayama's airport. We did this carrying all of our luggage and borrowed (at least in Rosey's and my case) snowboards and boots. A little bit cumbersome, but possible and done nonetheless.
Sarah did all of the planning (she was playing the role of big sister), so she bought the tickets. She might have been complaining about something in this picture, but this shows the flight (379) in the background to Sapporo as well as the amount of stuff each of us was approximately carrying.
Now off to our gate! We bought Omiyage (presents usually representative of a place/prefecture visited) for Taka, who was a Japanese near-pro snowboarder who was going to come and join us on Sunday (unfortunately there was so much snow on Saturday and Sunday that he mailed that morning to say it was too dangerous to drive up to the mountain).
On the way, we came across this priceless view of the hedges spelling out OKAY(ama)!
Don't have much to say for the plane ride other than it was packed. Why? Because there is only one flight a day leaving Okayama for Sapporo. Just one. It being a weekend too, yep, as you would imagine, it was packed. I had an interesting discussion with Sarah on how her father asks her questions about her vacation such as: How packed was the plane? Or how far from the city center was the hotel, and was breakfast free, and if so, continental or western? I consider these normal and imformative vacation questions whereas Sarah preferred the classics: How was your vacation? And did you have a good time?
Here was our first view of snow, from the video screen on the plane showing the movement of the plane and descent (this is supposed to lessen the effects of motion sickness because you have visual cues of movement to supplement those that your inner ear feels).
Then it was off to the bus to go to the mountain in Niseko. Times and all had already been researched on the web, so there was no hastle, struggle or stress, allowing us to dine at Mos Burger. Here is what Mos Burger's burger menu looks like.
This is a picture of the first witnessed snow. Walking outside we realized a bitter truth, it was ridiculously cold in Hokkaido, even moreso than the already annoying biting cold temperatures of Okayama.
The Yankee Squat
So somebody previously asked me what a "yankee" is. In Japan, students that don't conform to the usual rules of high school are called "yankees". This means that they do any one of these things:
Dye their hair.
Wear lots of makeup.
Roll up their skirts or wear their ties loose.
Unbutton blouses/shirts.
Talk using lots of slang and are rude.
Don't pay much attention in class, either sleeping or causing disruptions.
Walk around acting like they are the class of the school, bullying others at times.
And last but definitely not least, they sit in the style that is described as the "yankee squat".
I was unable to find any pictures online of Japanese highschoolers sitting in the style of a yankee, or even any pictures of yankees online... hm... I did find though a picture of baseball players sitting in "yankee" style (a common way to rest in Japan if you're tired of standing but there are no seats around).
I find myself occasionally getting into the stance without realizing it.
Dye their hair.
Wear lots of makeup.
Roll up their skirts or wear their ties loose.
Unbutton blouses/shirts.
Talk using lots of slang and are rude.
Don't pay much attention in class, either sleeping or causing disruptions.
Walk around acting like they are the class of the school, bullying others at times.
And last but definitely not least, they sit in the style that is described as the "yankee squat".
I was unable to find any pictures online of Japanese highschoolers sitting in the style of a yankee, or even any pictures of yankees online... hm... I did find though a picture of baseball players sitting in "yankee" style (a common way to rest in Japan if you're tired of standing but there are no seats around).
I find myself occasionally getting into the stance without realizing it.
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Haado Gei
So I was in elementary school awhile back when during school lunch (給食) I had a student ask me, "Niiru (pronounced nee-roo) sensei (teacher), Haado Gei, do you know?"
My response of I had not heard of him prompted some students to demonstrate his signature move: putting his hands on his head and gyrating his hips, thrusting into the air.
So Haado Gei, or Hard Gay, is a comedian here in Japan who portrays and stereotypes homosexuals. He is well-known amongst adults and children since for some reason despite the heavy sexual content of his humor and shows, he still airs on family shows and normal times.
Here is a picture of him as well as a link to an article written about him:
Greg, a JET in Champclair (the "mansion" or apartment building in the shi (Okayama City) where most of the city JETs live), came dressed to the halloween party as Hard Gay. An interesting costume choice, indeed.
My response of I had not heard of him prompted some students to demonstrate his signature move: putting his hands on his head and gyrating his hips, thrusting into the air.
So Haado Gei, or Hard Gay, is a comedian here in Japan who portrays and stereotypes homosexuals. He is well-known amongst adults and children since for some reason despite the heavy sexual content of his humor and shows, he still airs on family shows and normal times.
Here is a picture of him as well as a link to an article written about him:
Greg, a JET in Champclair (the "mansion" or apartment building in the shi (Okayama City) where most of the city JETs live), came dressed to the halloween party as Hard Gay. An interesting costume choice, indeed.
The yankee baseball students
So in my last class today, a yankee baseball student was asked the followed question: "How do you spell the word 'straight'?"
Since, as most of my baseball players are, he was not the brightest star in the sky, he relies on the student, his friend (and not a baseball player) behind him to whisper him the answers so that the teacher doesn't hear, thinks the baseball player knows what's going on, and doesn't ask him any more questions.
Unfortunately though, this time around the student behind him misheard the question and thought the teacher had asked to spell the word "street," so he whispers s-t-r-e-e-t. The baseball player dutifully repeats each letter.
The teacher looks at him, shaking her head. "That's wrong, I asked you to spell straight, not street!" chuckling even. The baseball player annoyed that he made himself look bad (although everyone in class knows about this whispering-deal) turns around and smacks his friend behind him on the head reprimanding him in Japanese for spelling to him the wrong word.
Oops, he blew his own cover. I knew what was going on, but was having more fun just watching it knowing he was going to be wrong. Much of the class burst out in laugher, and the next time he was called on, his friend behind him had to stand while he was answering the question so his mouth was readily visible.
Since, as most of my baseball players are, he was not the brightest star in the sky, he relies on the student, his friend (and not a baseball player) behind him to whisper him the answers so that the teacher doesn't hear, thinks the baseball player knows what's going on, and doesn't ask him any more questions.
Unfortunately though, this time around the student behind him misheard the question and thought the teacher had asked to spell the word "street," so he whispers s-t-r-e-e-t. The baseball player dutifully repeats each letter.
The teacher looks at him, shaking her head. "That's wrong, I asked you to spell straight, not street!" chuckling even. The baseball player annoyed that he made himself look bad (although everyone in class knows about this whispering-deal) turns around and smacks his friend behind him on the head reprimanding him in Japanese for spelling to him the wrong word.
Oops, he blew his own cover. I knew what was going on, but was having more fun just watching it knowing he was going to be wrong. Much of the class burst out in laugher, and the next time he was called on, his friend behind him had to stand while he was answering the question so his mouth was readily visible.
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Japanese Green Tea Ceremony
So after playing soccer in Bizen, as I had explained before we went to a nearby temple for a tea ceremony amongst other things.
Here are some simple explanations for you on what to do at a tea ceremony:
First off, you sit souzan style, or with your feet tucked underneath you. This is very painful for me and some people, but classically the entire duration should be attended in this seating position.
You will receive sweet treats on a square sheet of paper that has been folded once. These are two be eaten before the green tea.
When you receive the tea, bow and thank to thank the person.
Then, moving the bowl to the right so it is in front of your right leg, closer to the person sitting to your right, say: "もう一服いかがでございませんか？" (mou ippuku ikaga de gozaimasenka?). This means in very formal Japanese, "Would you like another one (bowl of green tea)?"
A formal response to this is, "いいえ、もう結構です。”(iie, mou kekkou desu), or "No, no thank you." You can actually say yes, implying that you would like another bowl of green tea, thus effectively taking it from the person and having your second, but this is rude and not done.
Then you move the bowl of tea in front of your left leg, and say to the person to your left: "先にちょうだい致します。”（saki ni choudai itashimasu), or again in formal Japanese, "First, I will drink." (implying excuse me).
Now you may move the bowl back to directly in front of you, and pick it up. Before drinking though, holding the bowl in your left hand, turn it clockwise three times in your left palm with your right hand. Then drink once. The second time you drink, finish the entire bowl, thus if you take a very small first drink, you will have to take a large second drink. Make sure though that the first drink is shorter than the second.
After drinking all the tea, rotate the bowl counterclockwise three times again using your right hand to turn the bowl.
Put the bowl back down on the tatami and say "ごちそうさまでした" (phrase said after drinking/eating something given to you to thank them for it).
If you are sharing bowls (i.e. they are not being washed between people, rather just returned and used directly again) then you are to take the paper which the sweets were on, and bending it around the rim, wipe the rim where you drank, folding the paper when you're done with the wipe so that when you put the paper back down on the tatami clean sides are touching the tatami, not where you wiped.
At this point, if there are other bowls circulating or the person making the tea is busy, you are encouraged to examine the bowl. Green tea is usually served in very ornate bowls, and the pictures convey stories or folklore. Do not though, lift the bowl off the tatami but tilt it instead. Also, sometimes on the bottom of the bowl is interesting information written. Again, to look tilt and lower your head, do not lift the bowl off the tatami.
This process is repeated with people being served in a clockwise fashion.
I think you can converse during it, although for very formal ones, I am not sure. We talked during ours and asked questions on what to say, do, etc. (although I remembered quite a bit from the first tea ceremony I attended with Jimbo-sensei for the full moon showing last year).
Perhaps this all seems a little trite, but I find it very interesting and really enjoy the process as well as green tea. There is also a whole process associated with how to make it (taking out the box with all the utensils, what order to use them in, how to orient the spoon, how to whisk, etc.) so as you can imagine, this really can get complex and that's why there are tea ceremony clubs at some middle schools and high schools: For students who are interested in the complexities of the Japanese tea ceremony.
This was quite the informative post. If I made an error on something or forgot to include something, please let me know!!!
Here are some simple explanations for you on what to do at a tea ceremony:
First off, you sit souzan style, or with your feet tucked underneath you. This is very painful for me and some people, but classically the entire duration should be attended in this seating position.
You will receive sweet treats on a square sheet of paper that has been folded once. These are two be eaten before the green tea.
When you receive the tea, bow and thank to thank the person.
Then, moving the bowl to the right so it is in front of your right leg, closer to the person sitting to your right, say: "もう一服いかがでございませんか？" (mou ippuku ikaga de gozaimasenka?). This means in very formal Japanese, "Would you like another one (bowl of green tea)?"
A formal response to this is, "いいえ、もう結構です。”(iie, mou kekkou desu), or "No, no thank you." You can actually say yes, implying that you would like another bowl of green tea, thus effectively taking it from the person and having your second, but this is rude and not done.
Then you move the bowl of tea in front of your left leg, and say to the person to your left: "先にちょうだい致します。”（saki ni choudai itashimasu), or again in formal Japanese, "First, I will drink." (implying excuse me).
Now you may move the bowl back to directly in front of you, and pick it up. Before drinking though, holding the bowl in your left hand, turn it clockwise three times in your left palm with your right hand. Then drink once. The second time you drink, finish the entire bowl, thus if you take a very small first drink, you will have to take a large second drink. Make sure though that the first drink is shorter than the second.
After drinking all the tea, rotate the bowl counterclockwise three times again using your right hand to turn the bowl.
Put the bowl back down on the tatami and say "ごちそうさまでした" (phrase said after drinking/eating something given to you to thank them for it).
If you are sharing bowls (i.e. they are not being washed between people, rather just returned and used directly again) then you are to take the paper which the sweets were on, and bending it around the rim, wipe the rim where you drank, folding the paper when you're done with the wipe so that when you put the paper back down on the tatami clean sides are touching the tatami, not where you wiped.
At this point, if there are other bowls circulating or the person making the tea is busy, you are encouraged to examine the bowl. Green tea is usually served in very ornate bowls, and the pictures convey stories or folklore. Do not though, lift the bowl off the tatami but tilt it instead. Also, sometimes on the bottom of the bowl is interesting information written. Again, to look tilt and lower your head, do not lift the bowl off the tatami.
This process is repeated with people being served in a clockwise fashion.
I think you can converse during it, although for very formal ones, I am not sure. We talked during ours and asked questions on what to say, do, etc. (although I remembered quite a bit from the first tea ceremony I attended with Jimbo-sensei for the full moon showing last year).
Perhaps this all seems a little trite, but I find it very interesting and really enjoy the process as well as green tea. There is also a whole process associated with how to make it (taking out the box with all the utensils, what order to use them in, how to orient the spoon, how to whisk, etc.) so as you can imagine, this really can get complex and that's why there are tea ceremony clubs at some middle schools and high schools: For students who are interested in the complexities of the Japanese tea ceremony.
This was quite the informative post. If I made an error on something or forgot to include something, please let me know!!!
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Thanksgiving
I organized a Thanksgiving feast in Tamano this past weekend. There were supposed to be 50 people, but only 40 showed, so there was as expected LOTS of extra food. I took home two whole turkeys (8 13lb'ers total made). A large statistical error on food amount, so will have lots of turkey for the next couple of months, but it's all in the freezer, so no big deal!
Took some pictures, but was really busy running around the kitchen, but felt amazingly at home. Slept all day Sunday since I was thoroughly exhausted. Pretty busy today at school but with my own list of things to do.
I will hopefully get some better pictures from friends and put them up. I will also scour other people's blogs and post their thoughts on this so I don't have to write as much. On another day I'll go through the day in more detail, but for now, it was a world of fun and a huge learning experience (never have I organized such a large event before).
Took some pictures, but was really busy running around the kitchen, but felt amazingly at home. Slept all day Sunday since I was thoroughly exhausted. Pretty busy today at school but with my own list of things to do.
I will hopefully get some better pictures from friends and put them up. I will also scour other people's blogs and post their thoughts on this so I don't have to write as much. On another day I'll go through the day in more detail, but for now, it was a world of fun and a huge learning experience (never have I organized such a large event before).
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Karma and the mysterious phone call
So I biked into the city, as I do every now and then (read: about once a week), only this time at night with my full light set up. This involves a flashing red beacon on the back, my 6lb motorcycle battery strapped on the rack, and my 25 Watt homemade light velcro'd onto the front.
Yes, it's serious, but very enjoyable: The light is so powerful the signs actually glow as they would normally if you were driving a car at night!
I rounded a corner right near Champclair, and almost ran over a small black object on the ground. Despite only getting a split second look at it, I somehow (and correctly) knew it was ... a wallet. I go back and pick it up, stuffing it in my pocket to check out later.
Turns out it was a hefty thing, black, with some fancy brand name that I'd never heard of. There was one of those special 2000yen notes in it, along with a handful of change, but no serious cash, and TONS of cards.
I decided to return it myself to the police station. I went with Kanae in case there were any serious problems, but there were none. We actually went at 9pm to the "konban" or police branch, but there were no policemen there are all. Then we went after the bar at about 2am, and there were 5!!! Fancy that, at 2am the place is packed, an hour when nobody would go most likely, yet at 9pm, still a reasonable time, it was deserted.
Yes, that's Japan for you.
So I show the wallet, say how I found it and am turning it in, and the policeman pulls out a pair of rubber gloves and starts to sort out all the contents. Hello, I've been touching the thing, what's the reason for the professional gloves? Anyways, they count the money, take inventory of the important cards, then have me fill out a form which has my address, phone number, etc. on it. I do so, and when putting in my apartment address, they ask what kind of building I live in.
An apartment I say. Oh, then what's the room number, they ask. "There is none," was my reply. "That's impossible," the policeman told me. ??? Huh, uh, hello, I know my address. So he keeps telling me that's not right, and after a minute I finally whip out my gaijin card and shove in front of him and ask him if he's got any other questions or can I leave (this was taking much longer than I thought it would or should).
Regardless, all said and done, it took about a half hour. Turns out if they are unable to find the owner of the wallet in 6 months, then the money in the wallet is mine (all 2000yen and change, whoo hoo).
Two nights ago, at nearly 10pm I got a call. I expected it to be from CJ since I had e-mailed him to call be before 10, and since nobody else calls really, I picked up the phone answering with some slangy English rhetoric like "yo, nagasaki homeboy," and get instead silence, then a Japanese voice explaining that she is sorry for calling so late and her name is Katayama-san.
I completely forgot about the wallet (the gal's name was Yuka Katayama, hopefully posting this doesn't get me in trouble with the law somehow), and how I had put my home phone number on it.
Regardless, after about 3 minutes of me asking who she was, and finally understanding her answer (in my defense, she was using TONS of polite Japanese, like itadaku and keredomo), so I was super confused. Finally it dawned on me, and my reply of "aaaah.... yuka-chan" broke the tension.
I told her no worries, and have a good night.
Yes, it's serious, but very enjoyable: The light is so powerful the signs actually glow as they would normally if you were driving a car at night!
I rounded a corner right near Champclair, and almost ran over a small black object on the ground. Despite only getting a split second look at it, I somehow (and correctly) knew it was ... a wallet. I go back and pick it up, stuffing it in my pocket to check out later.
Turns out it was a hefty thing, black, with some fancy brand name that I'd never heard of. There was one of those special 2000yen notes in it, along with a handful of change, but no serious cash, and TONS of cards.
I decided to return it myself to the police station. I went with Kanae in case there were any serious problems, but there were none. We actually went at 9pm to the "konban" or police branch, but there were no policemen there are all. Then we went after the bar at about 2am, and there were 5!!! Fancy that, at 2am the place is packed, an hour when nobody would go most likely, yet at 9pm, still a reasonable time, it was deserted.
Yes, that's Japan for you.
So I show the wallet, say how I found it and am turning it in, and the policeman pulls out a pair of rubber gloves and starts to sort out all the contents. Hello, I've been touching the thing, what's the reason for the professional gloves? Anyways, they count the money, take inventory of the important cards, then have me fill out a form which has my address, phone number, etc. on it. I do so, and when putting in my apartment address, they ask what kind of building I live in.
An apartment I say. Oh, then what's the room number, they ask. "There is none," was my reply. "That's impossible," the policeman told me. ??? Huh, uh, hello, I know my address. So he keeps telling me that's not right, and after a minute I finally whip out my gaijin card and shove in front of him and ask him if he's got any other questions or can I leave (this was taking much longer than I thought it would or should).
Regardless, all said and done, it took about a half hour. Turns out if they are unable to find the owner of the wallet in 6 months, then the money in the wallet is mine (all 2000yen and change, whoo hoo).
Two nights ago, at nearly 10pm I got a call. I expected it to be from CJ since I had e-mailed him to call be before 10, and since nobody else calls really, I picked up the phone answering with some slangy English rhetoric like "yo, nagasaki homeboy," and get instead silence, then a Japanese voice explaining that she is sorry for calling so late and her name is Katayama-san.
I completely forgot about the wallet (the gal's name was Yuka Katayama, hopefully posting this doesn't get me in trouble with the law somehow), and how I had put my home phone number on it.
Regardless, after about 3 minutes of me asking who she was, and finally understanding her answer (in my defense, she was using TONS of polite Japanese, like itadaku and keredomo), so I was super confused. Finally it dawned on me, and my reply of "aaaah.... yuka-chan" broke the tension.
I told her no worries, and have a good night.
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Bizen Soccer Experience
So last week, just as I had done last year, I biked to Bizen again to help out with their "Intercultural Soccer Day". The four volunteers were Sarah, Claire, Andy, and myself.
I as usual biked in from the city, thus putting me over 640km (now over 700km) for the month (remember my goal is 640km each month, or 400 miles, coming out to roughly a hundred miles a week).
Soccer was fun, I proceeded to put the pink jersey on my head, tucking it into my hat, since it was ideally far more fashionable than actually putting it on correctly.
Afterwards, we all had a marvelous (and plentiful) yakisoba lunch. The first round was quickly gobbled up by most of the kids, but I was able to make a killing on the 2nd and 3rd, taking home a total of 5 bowls of yummy food to the stomache. The fear of being sick on the ride home prevented me from eating more. In retrospect, since I didn't end up riding home until well later, attending instead the full length of the temple visit, I should've gone in for more.
The temple was nearby, about 5km away, up the side of a very steep hill. We ended up first witnessing a chant (I could not remember the phony chant I was taught as a joke, how disappointing!). I took a serious video, but unfortunately have still not figured out how to post videos on this, so maybe another time. Afterwards I did take a lot of pictures of the very pretty room. After that was a tea ceremony, then a poem recitation and dance by one of the ladies who served us tea.
I as usual biked in from the city, thus putting me over 640km (now over 700km) for the month (remember my goal is 640km each month, or 400 miles, coming out to roughly a hundred miles a week).
Soccer was fun, I proceeded to put the pink jersey on my head, tucking it into my hat, since it was ideally far more fashionable than actually putting it on correctly.
Afterwards, we all had a marvelous (and plentiful) yakisoba lunch. The first round was quickly gobbled up by most of the kids, but I was able to make a killing on the 2nd and 3rd, taking home a total of 5 bowls of yummy food to the stomache. The fear of being sick on the ride home prevented me from eating more. In retrospect, since I didn't end up riding home until well later, attending instead the full length of the temple visit, I should've gone in for more.
The temple was nearby, about 5km away, up the side of a very steep hill. We ended up first witnessing a chant (I could not remember the phony chant I was taught as a joke, how disappointing!). I took a serious video, but unfortunately have still not figured out how to post videos on this, so maybe another time. Afterwards I did take a lot of pictures of the very pretty room. After that was a tea ceremony, then a poem recitation and dance by one of the ladies who served us tea.
Friday, November 25, 2005
Technical Difficulties
There have been some tech problems with my blog and the forwarding system I have in place. Hm... working on it. Hopefully this solves the bug.
Dinner at the Kondos
So two weeks ago from today I had dinner with the Kondos, rather just Junko and Keiko. They were Ben's last host family.
This was the delicious meal that was served up. Very good. I took a picture.
Otherwise, nothing new there. Junko is the coach of the hachihama elementary school volleyball team, and since I was at hachihama that day, I stuck around to watch/help with practice, then followed her home for dinner. The kids got a real kick at being able to practice with me, and while doing bumping drills asked that I spike it at them. This basically was more like target practice for me then bumping for them, seeing as they just held their arms out, closed their eyes, and prayed. If I hit it just right and where their arms were, it would turn out to be a decent bump. A small challenge when you're dealing with kids shorter than 5 feet tall too.
This was the delicious meal that was served up. Very good. I took a picture.
Otherwise, nothing new there. Junko is the coach of the hachihama elementary school volleyball team, and since I was at hachihama that day, I stuck around to watch/help with practice, then followed her home for dinner. The kids got a real kick at being able to practice with me, and while doing bumping drills asked that I spike it at them. This basically was more like target practice for me then bumping for them, seeing as they just held their arms out, closed their eyes, and prayed. If I hit it just right and where their arms were, it would turn out to be a decent bump. A small challenge when you're dealing with kids shorter than 5 feet tall too.
Speech Contest
So last week was midyear seminar (16-18th of November). My school though, got me out of quite a bit of it since, for one reason, I had a speech contest on Wednesday afternoon at Minerva (a previously rented out place for Thanksgiving dinner, but I passed on it because it wasn't free, and wasn't as nice as the Sukoyaka center).
But, since the seminar started at 10am, and I wasn't supposed to be at Minerva until noon, they asked that I go for the first 45 minutes to see just the key-note speech, then leave. Wow. Well, this may seem annoying, and it was, but let's just say I may have gotten paid to bike 50+km and sit down for fourty minutes (reinbursement for train fees required for round trip, not much though really).
So I went to this last year, and there were a total of 8 judges, 4 foreigners, and 4 Japanese people. This year it was 3 and 3. As usual, it was more of a "recitation contest" than a speech contest since students went on stage and recited the mesmorized speech which they had picked; There were 6 different possible speeches they could give.
The best speech was definitely one which talked about ET, and only one student attempted it. The favorites were the foolish king who bought a magic suit that was really nothing at all and he was naked, and one talking about sign language and how it is useful.
After each of us finished scoring, we retired to pick the winner. I was satisfied with the original winner, but then they realized that they had made a mistake on the order of the participants on the sheet, and the previous winner was in fact second place, and the girl that did ET, who before had been 2nd, was in fact the winner.
Myself and another ALT disagreed completely. Although she had picked the harder speech, her pronounciation (which was supposedly 50% of the final score and more important than attitude and presentation, or so they made sure to tell us specifically in the meeting before the start) was the worst of all of the students. In the meeting before, the organizers emphasized that the person with the best pronounciation should win, not the one who is the loudest and most theatrical.
So, despite myself and another ALT, both native English speakers, giving this girl the worst pronounciation score out of all the participants on our scorecards, this girl somehow managed to win. I was appalled. After all that, after all the emphasis on pronounciation, they allowed her theatrics to take over and get her the win. Foolish Japanese judges, since she had the worst pronounciation score (overall mid-to-low score for us), but due to their appreciation was given 優勝 or top prize (yuushou).
After the speeches and before the prizes, there was a mini-group discussion of sorts, each circle of chairs getting a foreigner to lead the way asking questions and maintaining conversation (i.e. preventing silence).
Here are some pictures from the event:
And the winner, ET speech in mind. I took a video of it actually since I wanted to catch it seeing as I thought it was the strangest speech of them all...
But, since the seminar started at 10am, and I wasn't supposed to be at Minerva until noon, they asked that I go for the first 45 minutes to see just the key-note speech, then leave. Wow. Well, this may seem annoying, and it was, but let's just say I may have gotten paid to bike 50+km and sit down for fourty minutes (reinbursement for train fees required for round trip, not much though really).
So I went to this last year, and there were a total of 8 judges, 4 foreigners, and 4 Japanese people. This year it was 3 and 3. As usual, it was more of a "recitation contest" than a speech contest since students went on stage and recited the mesmorized speech which they had picked; There were 6 different possible speeches they could give.
The best speech was definitely one which talked about ET, and only one student attempted it. The favorites were the foolish king who bought a magic suit that was really nothing at all and he was naked, and one talking about sign language and how it is useful.
After each of us finished scoring, we retired to pick the winner. I was satisfied with the original winner, but then they realized that they had made a mistake on the order of the participants on the sheet, and the previous winner was in fact second place, and the girl that did ET, who before had been 2nd, was in fact the winner.
Myself and another ALT disagreed completely. Although she had picked the harder speech, her pronounciation (which was supposedly 50% of the final score and more important than attitude and presentation, or so they made sure to tell us specifically in the meeting before the start) was the worst of all of the students. In the meeting before, the organizers emphasized that the person with the best pronounciation should win, not the one who is the loudest and most theatrical.
So, despite myself and another ALT, both native English speakers, giving this girl the worst pronounciation score out of all the participants on our scorecards, this girl somehow managed to win. I was appalled. After all that, after all the emphasis on pronounciation, they allowed her theatrics to take over and get her the win. Foolish Japanese judges, since she had the worst pronounciation score (overall mid-to-low score for us), but due to their appreciation was given 優勝 or top prize (yuushou).
After the speeches and before the prizes, there was a mini-group discussion of sorts, each circle of chairs getting a foreigner to lead the way asking questions and maintaining conversation (i.e. preventing silence).
Here are some pictures from the event:
And the winner, ET speech in mind. I took a video of it actually since I wanted to catch it seeing as I thought it was the strangest speech of them all...
Friday, November 11, 2005
More interesting news...
I went to elementary school today. Shonai, the school which I called in sick last Tuesday and told to reschedule on a Monday since I was going to the hospital with a fever and a finger infection.
They were great and really nice to me, asking if I was feeling better, and concerned that I would be biking home in the rain today (which I did, hopefully I don't catch something, though think it should be okay).
I came back to my H.S. to check mail, talk to my JTE, and some other things. As I was sitting here checking my mail my vice principal comes up to me with ... the black book. The black book is the book with all sorts of information and stuff, but the only thing I know it for is it's the book where you put in the paid-vacation you are going to take and sign off on it. He comes over with this book, and asking if now's a problem (my reply no), and then starts talking about the 1st of November (which was that Tuesday). I say yes, I was sick and went to the hospital, and even before he has a chance tell him that I would like to file that under bokkyuu, or sick leave. That stumped him. He paused, looked around nervously, then proceeded to retreat back to his desk. I have been waiting to see if he will return demanding I take nenkyuu, or paid leave, but it seems this is not the case.
Therefore, I guess what we have learned here is something that JETs knew all along: Your school will attempt to take off your paid leave without informing you about your other options because they don't want you to use your paid leave. JETs are not Japanese people; We value our vacation time like loose change for a homeless man, and we don't give it up easy. Japanese teachers take pride in never using any vacation, JETs take pride in using all of our vacation days.
This was the first vacation day I have taken yet. I also am not missing the school since they are making it up on a monday. I think in the back of my mind that this was the reason why the school gave me monday off in the first place: knowing that I would miss days and they could be made up on mondays, and my desire to leave on weekends perhaps adding on a monday and if there were no classes then I wouldn't miss anything.
This is all just my thoughts. I could be wrong.
A funny anecdote from school today: A kid comes running after class, and boldly asks me in Japanese "何人ですか？”or "Where are you from (literally what kind of person are you?)?" The appropriate response is american, but I shocked even myself when the joke response came out even faster from my mouth, "にんじん", or "carrot". The reason why this is funny for japanese people is because both have "jin", the question being in romaji: nani jin desuka? The funny answer: ninjin.
We were also playing bingo, and I had a little cup full of small white balls with the numbers 0 to 60 on them. The cup device worked where if you lifted it up then returned it, a ball would be pushed up and out of the cup, same thing as a bingo wheel or something. Well, I was shaking it, asking if students were ready when the top came off, and all 61 balls went EVERYWHERE! Amazingly kids everywhere sprung to action and every single ball was found and replaced in a matter of less than a minute. Wow, what bad luck though to have the top come off!
Apologies for these being purely text. I haven't had another exciting weekend of picture taking yet. I still have to put halloween pictures up on my photosite, as well as post some other random pictures of things that I took such as the bike-pile near the 7-11 and my finally managing to get my plastic bottle collection out for PET bottle day.
They were great and really nice to me, asking if I was feeling better, and concerned that I would be biking home in the rain today (which I did, hopefully I don't catch something, though think it should be okay).
I came back to my H.S. to check mail, talk to my JTE, and some other things. As I was sitting here checking my mail my vice principal comes up to me with ... the black book. The black book is the book with all sorts of information and stuff, but the only thing I know it for is it's the book where you put in the paid-vacation you are going to take and sign off on it. He comes over with this book, and asking if now's a problem (my reply no), and then starts talking about the 1st of November (which was that Tuesday). I say yes, I was sick and went to the hospital, and even before he has a chance tell him that I would like to file that under bokkyuu, or sick leave. That stumped him. He paused, looked around nervously, then proceeded to retreat back to his desk. I have been waiting to see if he will return demanding I take nenkyuu, or paid leave, but it seems this is not the case.
Therefore, I guess what we have learned here is something that JETs knew all along: Your school will attempt to take off your paid leave without informing you about your other options because they don't want you to use your paid leave. JETs are not Japanese people; We value our vacation time like loose change for a homeless man, and we don't give it up easy. Japanese teachers take pride in never using any vacation, JETs take pride in using all of our vacation days.
This was the first vacation day I have taken yet. I also am not missing the school since they are making it up on a monday. I think in the back of my mind that this was the reason why the school gave me monday off in the first place: knowing that I would miss days and they could be made up on mondays, and my desire to leave on weekends perhaps adding on a monday and if there were no classes then I wouldn't miss anything.
This is all just my thoughts. I could be wrong.
A funny anecdote from school today: A kid comes running after class, and boldly asks me in Japanese "何人ですか？”or "Where are you from (literally what kind of person are you?)?" The appropriate response is american, but I shocked even myself when the joke response came out even faster from my mouth, "にんじん", or "carrot". The reason why this is funny for japanese people is because both have "jin", the question being in romaji: nani jin desuka? The funny answer: ninjin.
We were also playing bingo, and I had a little cup full of small white balls with the numbers 0 to 60 on them. The cup device worked where if you lifted it up then returned it, a ball would be pushed up and out of the cup, same thing as a bingo wheel or something. Well, I was shaking it, asking if students were ready when the top came off, and all 61 balls went EVERYWHERE! Amazingly kids everywhere sprung to action and every single ball was found and replaced in a matter of less than a minute. Wow, what bad luck though to have the top come off!
Apologies for these being purely text. I haven't had another exciting weekend of picture taking yet. I still have to put halloween pictures up on my photosite, as well as post some other random pictures of things that I took such as the bike-pile near the 7-11 and my finally managing to get my plastic bottle collection out for PET bottle day.
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Elementary School Madness
So yes, for those not aware, I put down my foot last year on elementary schools asking that they give me no more than 5 classes a day, and no more than 3 in a row (i.e. not all 4 morning classes). This I think somewhat worried them and put some 4 class days into the schedule along with 5, but lately it seems they have forgotten it and I've had a couple of 6 day'ers again, with already 2 more in my upcoming schedule.
Wow, this is seriously tiring sometimes. I really do enjoy elementary school, but sometimes think that the method in which my time is being used is as fruitless as trying to up-root telephone poles by hand. I will write a letter one of these days and shoot it off to my superviser, principal, and the BOE (Board of Education) at Tamano. When I do, I'll be sure to post it.
But another interesting thing happened to me yesterday on a day where I was to go to Ozaki Elementary School. I actually didn't put down in my cell phone which school and didn't have the plans, so decided that I would just go to the H.S. early and look for myself, then head off to wherever I had to go.
After finding out which school, I proceeded to putz around a little bit before heading out just after 9am, giving me plenty of time to head to Ozaki, about 20-25 minutes away. Right as I got on my bike though, I noticed a problem: My front tire was completely flat. Strange considering I had just biked to school a half an hour ago and had no problem. I must've gotten a flat just pulling in and not noticed, or a small sized leak.
I called Ozaki and explained the situation. Usually I carry spares and all the equipment, but just this past weekend on Saturday, biking up to Okayama, I blew two flats and hadn't had time to repair either of them. Also, I didn't have the patch kit or tire removers on me, so there was no way of getting the tube off, fixing it, then heading out. So, the VP of the elementary school came to my high school to give me a ride to the elementary school.
She seemed pissed about it too. I know since after school was over I told her I was ready whenever she was, implying any time to leave is fine, but my translation of said phrase into Japanese must've lost its sincerity. Also, my answer to "Where do you want to be dropped off, your house or school," where I said my house since it was more convenient for her being closer to school (implying the elementary school) got an answer in Japanese of "this isn't convenient for me."
Now I realize that yes, this is a hassle. But seriously, the previous JETs in my job position have all relied upon rides to and from elementary schools. I am the first to actually make it my own priority by biking there myself. On top of that, let's imagine I had a car and I got a flat tire, would the VP still have been as annoyed about the inconvenience? The way I see it, a flat tire is bad luck, and you shouldn't make any judgements on poor luck.
Maybe I'm wrong and she was completely understanding of the situation and held no grudges, but somehow I don't think that's the case given how Japanese people NEVER tell you how they feel or their opinions. If anything, I think it's a fair and safer bet to say that she was even more displeased about the situation than I even think, and that is truly disturbing.
Also, I think I may have posted this before, but another elementary school is asking that I show up 2 and a half hours before my first class. This is the only school asking that. I am tempted to ask for a ride to and from my house and lunch (which they also don't offer) to counteract this, but figure just showing up whenever I want to is a better idea.
This last post was also created in the bitter aftermath of interview tests with the first year's where they are specifically told to answer in complete sentences, yet when asked if their sentence has a verb, are unable to answer yes or no, and unable to identify which word is the verb if they did use one. Another fantastically surprising charasteristic of the Japanese student taking an interview test is the remarkable ability to mumble to one-self as if attempting to divine the answer while in reality just stalling, and stalling, and stalling. I could seriously take a nap or just wait out the rest of the 45 minute period and there is a good conceivable chance that the student would continue in this manner for the rest of the period without ever forfeiting and admitting that they don't know. Incredible. I wish they would take this hard-nose stance with actually studying, then maybe we'd get somewhere.
Wow, this is seriously tiring sometimes. I really do enjoy elementary school, but sometimes think that the method in which my time is being used is as fruitless as trying to up-root telephone poles by hand. I will write a letter one of these days and shoot it off to my superviser, principal, and the BOE (Board of Education) at Tamano. When I do, I'll be sure to post it.
But another interesting thing happened to me yesterday on a day where I was to go to Ozaki Elementary School. I actually didn't put down in my cell phone which school and didn't have the plans, so decided that I would just go to the H.S. early and look for myself, then head off to wherever I had to go.
After finding out which school, I proceeded to putz around a little bit before heading out just after 9am, giving me plenty of time to head to Ozaki, about 20-25 minutes away. Right as I got on my bike though, I noticed a problem: My front tire was completely flat. Strange considering I had just biked to school a half an hour ago and had no problem. I must've gotten a flat just pulling in and not noticed, or a small sized leak.
I called Ozaki and explained the situation. Usually I carry spares and all the equipment, but just this past weekend on Saturday, biking up to Okayama, I blew two flats and hadn't had time to repair either of them. Also, I didn't have the patch kit or tire removers on me, so there was no way of getting the tube off, fixing it, then heading out. So, the VP of the elementary school came to my high school to give me a ride to the elementary school.
She seemed pissed about it too. I know since after school was over I told her I was ready whenever she was, implying any time to leave is fine, but my translation of said phrase into Japanese must've lost its sincerity. Also, my answer to "Where do you want to be dropped off, your house or school," where I said my house since it was more convenient for her being closer to school (implying the elementary school) got an answer in Japanese of "this isn't convenient for me."
Now I realize that yes, this is a hassle. But seriously, the previous JETs in my job position have all relied upon rides to and from elementary schools. I am the first to actually make it my own priority by biking there myself. On top of that, let's imagine I had a car and I got a flat tire, would the VP still have been as annoyed about the inconvenience? The way I see it, a flat tire is bad luck, and you shouldn't make any judgements on poor luck.
Maybe I'm wrong and she was completely understanding of the situation and held no grudges, but somehow I don't think that's the case given how Japanese people NEVER tell you how they feel or their opinions. If anything, I think it's a fair and safer bet to say that she was even more displeased about the situation than I even think, and that is truly disturbing.
Also, I think I may have posted this before, but another elementary school is asking that I show up 2 and a half hours before my first class. This is the only school asking that. I am tempted to ask for a ride to and from my house and lunch (which they also don't offer) to counteract this, but figure just showing up whenever I want to is a better idea.
This last post was also created in the bitter aftermath of interview tests with the first year's where they are specifically told to answer in complete sentences, yet when asked if their sentence has a verb, are unable to answer yes or no, and unable to identify which word is the verb if they did use one. Another fantastically surprising charasteristic of the Japanese student taking an interview test is the remarkable ability to mumble to one-self as if attempting to divine the answer while in reality just stalling, and stalling, and stalling. I could seriously take a nap or just wait out the rest of the 45 minute period and there is a good conceivable chance that the student would continue in this manner for the rest of the period without ever forfeiting and admitting that they don't know. Incredible. I wish they would take this hard-nose stance with actually studying, then maybe we'd get somewhere.
The sickness, the drugs, the recovery
Last week I got sick. This was the first serious illness of this winter/cold phase. It started after the weekend debacle that was Halloween. I woke up on Monday feeling just cruddy, went to school (although pulled a halfday), and then woke up on Tuesday morning with a raging fever.
I called my elementary school and told them I was not coming and to reschedule on another Monday (yeah, I think that may have been partially the reason why I have no classes on Monday this year: so that any time a holiday falls on an elementary Tuesday or Friday, or I miss one for some reason, they can slap it on Monday).
To make matters worse, my right hand middle finger got infected, and swelled up to a large elephantitic size. This all prompted me to go to the hospital to get it looked at (and the pus drained).
So this is my second time in a hospital. Still just figuring out how it really works, and explained what I wanted (somebody to look at my finger). I get in to see the doctor after about a ten minute wait, he looks at it, says that it is infected and wants to take an x-ray. An x-ray? What? I refuse the x-ray saying I had one taken 2 months ago when I thought I broke my hand, and this has nothing to do with bones. If you can drain it, do so, else anti-biotics now would be nice.
I think I frustrated/humiliated the doctor a little with my adament put-down of his suggestion for an x-ray and ensuing directions on what I think should be done about it (most Japanese people do not offer their suggestions on what should be done, especially to somebody 先輩 or senpai (elder) like a doctor). Enough to not only get 3 nurses to come and watch the spectacle, surprised to see me half running the show, and to also call in another doctor who spoke better English than him.
It was finally decided that there wasn't much pus yet (which I still disagree with considering how swollen my finger was), but he prescribed anti-biotics and I went on my way. In the end, all is well, I think. I got the pus out of my finger myself using a need, and everything healthwise seems to be back to normal, though my training for the duathlon in Iwakuni on the 20th took a serious hit. Oh well, it's all for fun anyways, not like I'm going to win it.
I called my elementary school and told them I was not coming and to reschedule on another Monday (yeah, I think that may have been partially the reason why I have no classes on Monday this year: so that any time a holiday falls on an elementary Tuesday or Friday, or I miss one for some reason, they can slap it on Monday).
To make matters worse, my right hand middle finger got infected, and swelled up to a large elephantitic size. This all prompted me to go to the hospital to get it looked at (and the pus drained).
So this is my second time in a hospital. Still just figuring out how it really works, and explained what I wanted (somebody to look at my finger). I get in to see the doctor after about a ten minute wait, he looks at it, says that it is infected and wants to take an x-ray. An x-ray? What? I refuse the x-ray saying I had one taken 2 months ago when I thought I broke my hand, and this has nothing to do with bones. If you can drain it, do so, else anti-biotics now would be nice.
I think I frustrated/humiliated the doctor a little with my adament put-down of his suggestion for an x-ray and ensuing directions on what I think should be done about it (most Japanese people do not offer their suggestions on what should be done, especially to somebody 先輩 or senpai (elder) like a doctor). Enough to not only get 3 nurses to come and watch the spectacle, surprised to see me half running the show, and to also call in another doctor who spoke better English than him.
It was finally decided that there wasn't much pus yet (which I still disagree with considering how swollen my finger was), but he prescribed anti-biotics and I went on my way. In the end, all is well, I think. I got the pus out of my finger myself using a need, and everything healthwise seems to be back to normal, though my training for the duathlon in Iwakuni on the 20th took a serious hit. Oh well, it's all for fun anyways, not like I'm going to win it.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Proof of Engineering
So Halloween has came and passed, and you may all wonder after my "can of chu-hai" last year, how did this year's momochi project actually go? (A picture of last year's costume is below!!!)
When Amy asked me whether or not I would be able to top last year, all I wrote her back was, "it's been topped," and quite frankly I think it is a safe bet to reiterate that.
Momochi was alive, and livin' large. Yes, I went with a ridiculously oversized hat as well as a large oversized torch. The only decent picture I actually have is from Chris' camera (thanks Chris in advance, none of my pictures are as good or appropriate). I also included some pictures of the torch on the lovely runway model known as Nancy so you can get an idea of it's ridiculous proportions and looks.
Now you may all be wondering how I managed to make such a monstrous (and yes, cool) hat. I took pictures to demonstrate the steps.
It began on a Tuesday morning with me covering my head in seran wrap and self-papermache'ing my head. Afterwards, I ended up borrowing Ashley's hairdryer to help it set, then let it dry fully. Later I ended up putting on a second layer to strengthen the "helmet" for my star hat.
Next up, I went to the drawing board (using school time of course). I decided the tip of each point on the star to the tip of another I wanted to be 1 meter. Then figured that I wanted the pentagon to have a side of a little under a third, finding online that somewhere around 30% is the visually aesthetic star body to point-point length. Therefore I decided 26 centimeters for the pentagon edge. Going online again, I found out the measurements for the center of a side of the pentagon to the center of the pentagon. Lastly, I decided that the hat would be 15cm high.
With all that set, I set out to make the cardboard pieces of the hat. This required painfully cutting out each piece to fairly exact dimension 5 times over (since a pentagon has five sides). The first picture you see is actually all 5 pieces completed (I measured out the appropriate notch distances too so that all the pieces would interlock accordingly. I realized afterwards though, that when I cut out the pieces I should've taken into account the tapering to a point, but instead cut that afterwards which proved to be annoying and should've been avoided). Afterwards, I glued all of these together, leaving me with 5 exactly alike shapes which you see below.
Then the test, taking those five, and taping them together. The reason for the cardboard extending to the middle was because I figured (and rightly so), that this would make the entire structure much more rigid and sound, and be a good base for the hat as well as something to mount the helmet directly to.
If you look at this picture, you'll see some cardboard look like newspapers. That's because I thought since the cardboard cutouts were made over bends in the cardboard (taken from boxes that weren't that big, so couldn't get flat sides), I thought that paper-mache'ing the outside would make them strong. This was a nearly fatal mistake, proving instead to weaken the cardboard due to the water/flour mix in paper-mache, and gave me limp pieces instead. They dried half-way when I put them on, and seemed like they would stiffen further, so I deemed it okay to continue.
After this I cut out a little bit of the bottom of the triangle, and putting in the helmet went to the mirror and took a guess with a pen at what really should be cut out for the hat to fit snugly. This was daunting, seeing as a messup could prove difficult/time-staking to fit. Luckily all went well, and the headpiece was firmly glued into the framework (twice actually, just to make sure).
Lastly, another seriously tedious part, was to then take long, white A5 sheets of paper (8.5"x17"), and tape them around the points, top, and bottom. Each point required 4 sheets (a sheet for each quarter of the point), and the top and bottom I just used paper and tape cuz I was getting really fed up (in retrospect that was a mistake because the spray paint did not stick to the plastic tape very well at all). No pictures of this, but as you can imagine, it was not fun, and very very very very annoying.
Last but not least, I wasted an entire can of yellow spray paint to get the sucker yellow. I also made a torch, but didn't take anything but the end picture. Cool things about the torch are the two tubes which i used for the frame, adding paper around one to make it fit snugly into the other, and the bottle top inserted in the top to hold a flashlight which backlit the red celophane to give the appearance of flames. Here is the final picture of both...
So yes, that completes the costume. I actually thought it was lost after Saturday night's party (I gave it to Yarek after figuring the hat's time was done, but luckily Sarah picked it up and will give it back to me this weekend), but no, it lives on. I will weigh it since people were curious as to its actually weight.
When Amy asked me whether or not I would be able to top last year, all I wrote her back was, "it's been topped," and quite frankly I think it is a safe bet to reiterate that.
Momochi was alive, and livin' large. Yes, I went with a ridiculously oversized hat as well as a large oversized torch. The only decent picture I actually have is from Chris' camera (thanks Chris in advance, none of my pictures are as good or appropriate). I also included some pictures of the torch on the lovely runway model known as Nancy so you can get an idea of it's ridiculous proportions and looks.
Now you may all be wondering how I managed to make such a monstrous (and yes, cool) hat. I took pictures to demonstrate the steps.
It began on a Tuesday morning with me covering my head in seran wrap and self-papermache'ing my head. Afterwards, I ended up borrowing Ashley's hairdryer to help it set, then let it dry fully. Later I ended up putting on a second layer to strengthen the "helmet" for my star hat.
Next up, I went to the drawing board (using school time of course). I decided the tip of each point on the star to the tip of another I wanted to be 1 meter. Then figured that I wanted the pentagon to have a side of a little under a third, finding online that somewhere around 30% is the visually aesthetic star body to point-point length. Therefore I decided 26 centimeters for the pentagon edge. Going online again, I found out the measurements for the center of a side of the pentagon to the center of the pentagon. Lastly, I decided that the hat would be 15cm high.
With all that set, I set out to make the cardboard pieces of the hat. This required painfully cutting out each piece to fairly exact dimension 5 times over (since a pentagon has five sides). The first picture you see is actually all 5 pieces completed (I measured out the appropriate notch distances too so that all the pieces would interlock accordingly. I realized afterwards though, that when I cut out the pieces I should've taken into account the tapering to a point, but instead cut that afterwards which proved to be annoying and should've been avoided). Afterwards, I glued all of these together, leaving me with 5 exactly alike shapes which you see below.
Then the test, taking those five, and taping them together. The reason for the cardboard extending to the middle was because I figured (and rightly so), that this would make the entire structure much more rigid and sound, and be a good base for the hat as well as something to mount the helmet directly to.
If you look at this picture, you'll see some cardboard look like newspapers. That's because I thought since the cardboard cutouts were made over bends in the cardboard (taken from boxes that weren't that big, so couldn't get flat sides), I thought that paper-mache'ing the outside would make them strong. This was a nearly fatal mistake, proving instead to weaken the cardboard due to the water/flour mix in paper-mache, and gave me limp pieces instead. They dried half-way when I put them on, and seemed like they would stiffen further, so I deemed it okay to continue.
After this I cut out a little bit of the bottom of the triangle, and putting in the helmet went to the mirror and took a guess with a pen at what really should be cut out for the hat to fit snugly. This was daunting, seeing as a messup could prove difficult/time-staking to fit. Luckily all went well, and the headpiece was firmly glued into the framework (twice actually, just to make sure).
Lastly, another seriously tedious part, was to then take long, white A5 sheets of paper (8.5"x17"), and tape them around the points, top, and bottom. Each point required 4 sheets (a sheet for each quarter of the point), and the top and bottom I just used paper and tape cuz I was getting really fed up (in retrospect that was a mistake because the spray paint did not stick to the plastic tape very well at all). No pictures of this, but as you can imagine, it was not fun, and very very very very annoying.
Last but not least, I wasted an entire can of yellow spray paint to get the sucker yellow. I also made a torch, but didn't take anything but the end picture. Cool things about the torch are the two tubes which i used for the frame, adding paper around one to make it fit snugly into the other, and the bottle top inserted in the top to hold a flashlight which backlit the red celophane to give the appearance of flames. Here is the final picture of both...
So yes, that completes the costume. I actually thought it was lost after Saturday night's party (I gave it to Yarek after figuring the hat's time was done, but luckily Sarah picked it up and will give it back to me this weekend), but no, it lives on. I will weigh it since people were curious as to its actually weight.
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Kokutai - Fall Events
So remember how Okayama Prefecture hosts the national games this year and during August I went to beach volleyball? Well, indoor volleyball and cycling came this time, and school was again cancelled for three days.
The volleyball game I saw was Hiroshima (red) versus Osaka (blue). Osaka was supposed to be the better team, but they lost in three, and Hiroshima ended up losing in the finals to Aichi (I think) Prefecture. Volleyball was actually pretty exciting, and confirmed that tall Japanese people do exist: All of the players were highschoolers and the shortest person on each team was about my height!
Some action shots, and then the end handshake. Hiroshima won because they had two serious goons that Osaka had no answer for!
I also went that same afternoon (finally, after over a year of not having gone considering all the biking that I do) to cycling, or keirin. Although my students went in the morning, I had a make-up day for elementary school so I went in the afternoon. It turns out that this was lucky because the morning there were only time-trials, thus only one rider at a time, and it was VERY boring. I got to see races in the afternoon where 15 riders would start, and after one preliminary speed-up lap, each ensuing lap the field of riders would narrow by one with the last rider in the pack dropping out. This continued until there were only 6 riders (then the next day those 6 would get into a pack and do the same thing again, just many many heats really). This was actually very exciting, and boy these riders are going fast. One lap (which I am guessing is your standard 400 meters) takes a good rider under 40 seconds. The track is also very sloped, allowing for some wild turns. I'd like to try, even though it does look slightly dangerous.
Here's the building, and written in English inside. You would think the mascot would have huge legs and tiny arms (since that's what most riders look like), but no, his upper body is weightlifter-esque!
Here are some riding shots. This was during the groups first lap, so I think there are 15 riders, count them! When I went, there were only old people who were watching, nobody even close to my age. The supervisors of teams also came to cheer on their riders and watch, and they wore their team colors in ridiculous outfits like this green/white ensemble from Nara.
I was fortunate (unfortunate?) enough to actually see a crash, since although they aren't exactly rare in the sport, considering I was only there for about an hour and a half, I guess I picked the right time. In keirin, what's really interesting is that it's not the first person that goes down that is hurt the most, it's the people behind him. They not only snap their feet into place, but strap them into the pedals as well, so there is no way to quickly dismount from their bike. It is also a fixed gear bike, so if the wheel turns, the crankshaft does too and your legs must turn, so it is impossible to stop the bike quickly anyways. Regardless, after the first speed-up lap, on the first turn of the first lap, a rider went down and the three people behind him were royally screwed. One flipped completely, the front wheel of his bike snapping like a twig, and two others just wiped. All four had to be carted off the track (the race immediately stopped). The rider that flipped wasn't moving at all right away, just motionless.
What really impressed me the most, but not really in a very good way, was how quickly they cleaned up the mess. People appeared from everywhere to help, moving the bikes off the track, sweeping it clean, carting people off, etc. All the old people watching were all murmuring about how dangerous it was and how he flipped and wasn't moving. So after about 5 minutes, everything was spic-and-span, and they started the race again (albeit with 11 riders instead of 15), and seconds later, what had happened was just as quickly forgotten. Nobody dwelled on it at all, confirming that although dangerous, it's just considered to be a risk you take in cycling.
The volleyball game I saw was Hiroshima (red) versus Osaka (blue). Osaka was supposed to be the better team, but they lost in three, and Hiroshima ended up losing in the finals to Aichi (I think) Prefecture. Volleyball was actually pretty exciting, and confirmed that tall Japanese people do exist: All of the players were highschoolers and the shortest person on each team was about my height!
Some action shots, and then the end handshake. Hiroshima won because they had two serious goons that Osaka had no answer for!
I also went that same afternoon (finally, after over a year of not having gone considering all the biking that I do) to cycling, or keirin. Although my students went in the morning, I had a make-up day for elementary school so I went in the afternoon. It turns out that this was lucky because the morning there were only time-trials, thus only one rider at a time, and it was VERY boring. I got to see races in the afternoon where 15 riders would start, and after one preliminary speed-up lap, each ensuing lap the field of riders would narrow by one with the last rider in the pack dropping out. This continued until there were only 6 riders (then the next day those 6 would get into a pack and do the same thing again, just many many heats really). This was actually very exciting, and boy these riders are going fast. One lap (which I am guessing is your standard 400 meters) takes a good rider under 40 seconds. The track is also very sloped, allowing for some wild turns. I'd like to try, even though it does look slightly dangerous.
Here's the building, and written in English inside. You would think the mascot would have huge legs and tiny arms (since that's what most riders look like), but no, his upper body is weightlifter-esque!
Here are some riding shots. This was during the groups first lap, so I think there are 15 riders, count them! When I went, there were only old people who were watching, nobody even close to my age. The supervisors of teams also came to cheer on their riders and watch, and they wore their team colors in ridiculous outfits like this green/white ensemble from Nara.
I was fortunate (unfortunate?) enough to actually see a crash, since although they aren't exactly rare in the sport, considering I was only there for about an hour and a half, I guess I picked the right time. In keirin, what's really interesting is that it's not the first person that goes down that is hurt the most, it's the people behind him. They not only snap their feet into place, but strap them into the pedals as well, so there is no way to quickly dismount from their bike. It is also a fixed gear bike, so if the wheel turns, the crankshaft does too and your legs must turn, so it is impossible to stop the bike quickly anyways. Regardless, after the first speed-up lap, on the first turn of the first lap, a rider went down and the three people behind him were royally screwed. One flipped completely, the front wheel of his bike snapping like a twig, and two others just wiped. All four had to be carted off the track (the race immediately stopped). The rider that flipped wasn't moving at all right away, just motionless.
What really impressed me the most, but not really in a very good way, was how quickly they cleaned up the mess. People appeared from everywhere to help, moving the bikes off the track, sweeping it clean, carting people off, etc. All the old people watching were all murmuring about how dangerous it was and how he flipped and wasn't moving. So after about 5 minutes, everything was spic-and-span, and they started the race again (albeit with 11 riders instead of 15), and seconds later, what had happened was just as quickly forgotten. Nobody dwelled on it at all, confirming that although dangerous, it's just considered to be a risk you take in cycling.
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