Saturday, September 14, 2002

*... fall has fallen ...*
Darius would be so happy here in Niigata. Why, you may ask? b/c every morning for the past week, I have been woken at some early hour by the rain pounding on my roof or sometimes through my open sliding glass door, where my head lies inches away from flooding. And in this past week, it has suddenly gotten quite cold. And the sad part is that it is cold in my opinion, like SD winter cold, but it is terribly temperate for the natives. And that makes me think I am going to be a popsicle in about a month.

By the way, I think I have mastered the Jedi mind trick. Now when i see fools in the wrong lanes (walkers in the bike lane, vice versa) I kind of stare at them and drop my hand to the side as a way of pointing to the right lane, and say "move over fool" in a very convincing tone. It seems to work. Cool!

There were 3 things I had to do today, and I managed to get all of one of them done. I had to pick up my gaijin card, certifying that I am indeed a foreigner, I wanted to mail something to my family, and I had to get my pictures developed. The first 2 places were closed, which means that I will probably never get them done, since I work during the week, and they both close before I get off work. The third thing I at least got done. Then I went shopping, but with no money. It was interesting. more like I went price comparing. There are a couple of things I need to buy, and they all involve electricity, aka they are kinda expensive. I have to buy a vacuum, a lamp, and a camera. I have a camera, but I have discovered that it is crap, that notion reinforced by the crap pictures I got back today, but that's okay, b/c they were mostly of my (kinda crap) apartment ; )

And now for something completely not surprising to me anymore: the Japanese have this strange fascination with this sea lion who seems to have made home somewhere near Tokyo, I think. They are obsessed with it like some may be obsessed with their ex-boyfriend or with dirty pop boy bands (ehem.) They have tshirts and plush toys of this thing, and everynight, it gets at least a 5 minute segment every night on the news. I know it's a country of low crime, but come on now, there must be SOMEthing more important to report, right??

I went to the movies last night with Kelly the Irish girl. We got there at 7 and the closest thing playing was something called BioHazard and it was absolutely the worst movie I have ever seen. A horrible sci-fi thriller with Mila Jolovich that I was laughing so hard I was crying because it was SOOO bad. Japanese movie theaters stay completely silent, so you can imagine the natives were probably disturbed a little by our running commentary. But oh well, it deserved it.

I am going to try to go to Sado Island tomorrow, unfortunately without taking any pictures as I have run out of film. Hopefully it won't rain on my head. Mata ne!
ps to spike - you made my morning!
5:28 PM

Thursday, September 12, 2002

*... good idea/bad idea, and other discoveries...*

good idea: Bikes on the road. Umbrellas in the rain.
bad idea: Fools with umbrellas on bikes in the rain. Not only do they have only one hand steering, but they can't see where they are going, and neither can anyone else b/c everyone's got umbrellas shading their view.

good idea: having a student participate in a speech contest.
bad idea: assigning the English teacher with the worst grasp of the language to coach her... then asking me if it is a) gramatically correct, and b) if the pronunciation is correct. I couldn't even understand the poor girl... or the teacher! Even with a copy of the speech in front of me (thank goodness they didn't ask me to edit it... I would have ripped it to shreads...)

good idea: talking with students, conversationally giving them a clue...
bad idea: having the same conversation, with every single student, b/c that's the way the teacher does it (personally I think he wants to waste the first 15 minutes of class). And it goes like this:
me: hello!
student: harro
me: how are you today?
student: i'm fine. thank you. and you?
me: i'm fine, thank you.
student: nice to meet you.
me: it's nice to meet you.

((Repeat x 300))

good idea: labeling quite prominently the bike lanes and the pedestrian lanes
bad idea: cursing the fools who wander into the wrong lane, b/c then you just look like a crazy gaijin on a bike/walking down the street.

good idea: 100 yen stores and 97 yen grocery sales
bad idea: going into the store with more than 105 yen (plus tax, you know) because otherwise you fool yourself into thinking "it's only 100 yen" and end up spending 2,500 yen instead.

i have discovered: that you shouldn't tell junior high school kids you don't have a boyfriend.
i have discovered: that you shouldn't tell junior high school kids that you DO have a boyfriend.
Either way, they freak out... usually with screaming. A lot. Then they try to set you up with another student, or mostly, another teacher.

i have discovered: that sushi vinegar is way easy to make and sushi rice is way good to eat... by itself.

i have discovered: that for some reason the bathrooms on the bottom floor smell the worst, and the bathrooms at the top don't smell at all... and the ones on the bottom are the teachers'!!

i have discovered: that Japanese kids are not as angelic as I initially thought, since i just found out that last night one of our boys was arrested for stealing a car and one of the girls was arrested for prostitution... at 13!!

i have discovered: that besides carne asada and rocky road ice cream, i miss little things like someone saying "bless you" when you sneeze.

i have discovered: that I can understand most of the language flying around my head, but i can't talk back... kinda like you can talk to a toddler, and they know what you're saying, but they don't have the language skills to say "no fool, I don't want any more milk!"

i have discovered: that I am eating lots of things I normally wouldn't touch with a 30 foot pole, like tea and fishcake, and I am doing things like watching baseball (!!) and I am actually enjoying it!

i have discovered: that my brain does math computations a lot quicker these days (maybe it's all the fish I've been eating...) since I have to do tons o' conversions in my head like yen >> dollars, Celsius >> Fahrenheit, kilograms >> pounds, etc.

i have discovered: that my body is sort of retarded after not working out for a month... i tried to do kata and almost punched my own eye out. Blah.


11:14 AM

Tuesday, September 10, 2002

*... well, there it is ...*
Oh my oh my... I cannot believe it. I walked into class today, and had 2 teenage girls run up to me and each put a hand on one of my boobs. Then they started kinda patting my chest. I was so surprised, I just stood there for half a second. Then I batted their hands away with a "don't do that!" and they just looked so fascinated, and started asking "nani cuppuh? nani cuppuh? (what cup? what cup?)" meaning they wanted to know what size I am. I was absolutely dumbfounded, but not as shocked as when they thought I didn't understand what they were saying, so they turned around and asked the MALE teacher who had just walked up to ask me what size I am.

uhhhhhhhhhh........

Okay, now I know that I am a fascinating creature for them (not bragging here, honestly.) I mean I am in culture that sees tiny tiny women with no such thing as an hourglass shape. Plus other little things like the school not allowing the kids to have pierced ears and the total taboo-ness of tattoos (means you're associated with the yakuza organized crime belt). And I do understand that the Japanese are brought up with a MUCH different view of the human body, they are much more open about things like nakedness at public baths and what not. BUT COME ON NOW, that is sooooo not cool. Tres uncouth. It's not like I am wearing anything tight or revealing, either. I am wearing a relatively baggy button down shirt. Not exactly a fuzzy bra with tassles that say 'touch me!'

I am still reeling a bit, if you can't tell...

*... one year ago ...*
The Japanese seem to be very obssessed with the Sept. 11th happenings of a year ago. I expected some kind of interrogations regarding my take on the situation. And I have gotten that from students and teachers. But what I find most disturbing is they play clips of it on the TV all the freakin' time. Last night when I was watching TV, 4 of the 6 stations had something 9/11 related on. And they have these really graphic commercials that they play in between, which have no announcements or voice-overs or subtitles or anything. It's just like footage of the incidents that plays for about 5 minutes. With no warning at all. So you could be sitting happily watching some crazy karaoke show (they have a lot of those) and the next thing you know, you see a plane go into the second tower or people jumping from 80 floors up. It's kinda harrowing to have this constant and abrupt reminders...

I don't watch TV too much these days...

*... in the meantime ...*
Yesterday I had off of school (since Sports Day was on Sunday) so I took the afternoon to travel 'round the city a bit. I tried to find the International Friendship Center in Niigata for the 3rd time, and still didn't find it. But i did find Honcho Market, which is like a HUGE farmer's market in it's own little mall-type area. All these really weathered looking farmer types with their wares. Very rural feeling, except you're downtown. Afterwards, I (very slowly... I was totemo tsukure very tired) biked over to the Dekky, another mall like thing that has a movie theater and a Toys R Us and other random stores. By the way, movies over here cost 1800-2100 yen, which is $15-$17. Oh dang. But you can get beer and a million types of coffee in the theater. Oh, and they have DIPPIN' DOTS!!! I almost fell over and died when I saw that. I am going to have to take a picture and send it to my old Dippin' Dots bosses. Funny funny.
When I was at the Dekky, I was thinking I should call Kelly, an Irish girl I met on Saturday who lived near there. I knew she had had Sports Day the day before too, and wondered if hers got cancelled from the rain. But I didn't have her number. However, when I was sitting to eat my lunch (you're not supposed to walk and eat in Japan, i think I saw ONE person doing it since I have been here... very big faux pas... and so WAY inconvenient!) I heard my name and there she was, coming down the stairs at the Dekky! Score! Now this woman CAN TALK and ended up chattering away for about 3.5 hours, mostly her talking, with the occassional edge-wise word from me. I just loved listening to her Irish way of speaking, and we determined that we had been approached by the same guy at the bus station (she says "boose"), although I was able to get rid of him by pretending that I only spoke spanish. Poor thing wasn't so lucky. Anyway, it was good to connect with her, and she gave me some insight on people and places around. We might get together this weekend to go to Sado Island, just off the coast here, in the Sea of Japan. There's some big festival going on. Or I might go to Ibaraki, near Tokyo this weekend...
Or I might stay home and wait to get paid.
2:55 PM

Monday, September 09, 2002

*... KAMPAI! BONZAI! SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYE! ...*
Now this is a concept I wouldn't mind catching on in the US. After big events, staff goes out for an enkai, or a big party with lots of food and drinking. After a really loooong day yesterday with Sports Day, the teachers from Miyaura JHS got together at a place called "Misawa" and had a party. I was asked to give a speech about my impressions of Sports Day, and then they all toasted "Kampai!" which is, essentially "Cheers!" and the festivities, food, and fun began. Man, these teachers are crazy! Especially after getting a little alcohol in them. Before long, 3 of the toughest, biggest, and meanest looking ones of them were serenading "When smoke gets in your eye..." Pretty funny. A bunch of them kept coming over asking me to join their little clubs they run at school... so far I am to make appearances at the Brass Band club, Chorus, Kendo, English Conversation, and Judo. The judo sensei was really pushing me coming there. Plus, the principal asked me to do kata for the students. Whoa there.
There are so many little rules to enkais. Like you can't pour your own drink, you can't refuse a drink poured by someone else, you are supposed to circulate the room and pour drinks, etc etc etc. I caught on to most of it, but I kept being told a lot of rules after the fact. Oh well, next time I will know. At the end of the enkai is "Bonzai" time, where you squat down and put your hands flat on the ground, jump in the air with hands over your head and yell "Bonzai!!!" You do this twice, and on the third attempt, you spin around in the air.... not such a good idea for a bunch of drunks, but pretty dang funny to watch.
After, a group of teachers went to karaoke, but I was plum-tuckered out, so I promised I would go next time. Plus I didn't really want to be serenaded again.

Can I just say that the Japanese LOVE to sing?! EVERYTHING and EVERYONE sings over here. I was watching a TV program the other night where a core group of "singers" sing the top 10 on the JPop charts. They just sing a few verses, but they imitate the videos and everything. But they're not even that good of singers. I would think that if I was going to be a professional TV karaoke singer, I would at least be able to carry a tune. The worst part was then the entire group had this extravaganza on stage where they were singing "Rollin' on a River" but they were a) WAY out of tune, and b) kept singing the wrong words, which were the same wrong words they were flashing on the screen. Plus this went on for about 10 minutes. I would have videotaped it as evidence, but I was in utter shock, frozen, staring, with my mouth gaping open... next time, I promise.

1:03 PM

Sunday, September 08, 2002

*... eye of the tiger...*
ah-ha! I knew I was not destined to be a social hermit! Finally, other people! I mean other than the couple million that live here, of course. Saturday I spent the day with a bunch o' other JETs from the Niigata area. Way cool to meet other people and know that I am not alone over here and have someone who lives a couple blocks over. I was getting worried there for a second, but now all is good.
Saturday was a quite rousing game of ultimate frisbee. Actually, a couple of games. Now I'm not much of a runner, but maybe all those bike trips have helped me out, b/c I was up and down the field. My lungs, on the other hand, didn't quite catch up to my legs, so there was a bit of inner conflict there for a while. But I stayed in through all of both games, mostly b/c we only had one person to substitute in and usually other people called it before I did. It was way fun, and really funny too b/c apparently people kept forgetting my name so they kept calling out "I love New York!" b/c I was wearing an "I (heart) NY" shirt. The patriotism was overwhelming. But then again, everyone kept assuming I was from NY.
After we thoroughly exhausted ourselves, a little gang of us hopped on our bikes and rode over to the Big Swan stadium (the one way far away that i had biked to earlier by mistake) to watch the local soccer team, Niigata Albirex, take on the Fukoaka Obri. You would not believe how much these people get behind their teams. About 250,000 people decked out head-to-toe in bright orange and blue and chanting and cheering the entire game. It was a madhouse if there was a goal. You couldn't help but get into it, especially since the natives would literally pick up your hands and throw them in the air and make you scream along. Quite friendly! Either way, it was good to be around people again, and to now have some contacts for going out, etc.
I guess a bunch of people went out afterwards, but I was exhausted, plus I had my school's sports day today (on sunday! ugh!) so I had to be up early. This little event is quite intriguing since apparently every school does it, every year, and it's quite elaborate. The mayor comes out for it and everything. The kids make up cheers and costumes and banners and compete against each other. Its like a track meet, except with tug-o-war and 3-legged races. I took some pics for future reference. There's rumored to be a "staff" event, but I am hoping that is just rumor, because after running around all day yesterday, I think I would just be a heap today! And as long as the weather holds out (I was woken by the rain at 3 in the morning POUNDING on my roof) then I get tomorrow off (for recovery, of course, more for the teachers, I think, since they have some huge drinking party scheduled for AFTER the sports festivities). I'm not sure how I feel about that, but it will be an experience. Hopefully no natto involved...
11:04 AM