Friday, December 06, 2002

*... the power of song ...*
This morning I popped my "jackson jams" cd into my player and took off for the bus stop. From the first few seconds of it playing, I could feel my spirits lifted and my pace qiuickening. When I stopped, my head bobbed along with the music. Picture some 1970s cop drama or something, with the funk music and the swaggering hero/heroine walking up to the camera (hello, UCSDiva!). That was me.

And then I began to hate music as I was forced to do "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes" for some first years. I haven't done that song since, I don't know, kindergarten? britt was not a happy camper. I wasn't into it, and the kids definitely weren't. After that class, the teacher told me that she wants me to teach a new song every week. Despite my protests of not wanting to sing, she insisted. Damn it.
3:57 PM

Thursday, December 05, 2002

*... if I wasn't a celebrity ...*
I was escorted home from the bus station today by no less than 45 different students along the way. The bus station is about 30 minutes from my home, and the route is one of the main fairways that the Miyaura kids go along. So I got a great showing of former students shrieking and gasping and running and screaming "sensei! sensei!" I had them follow me into the post office, where they already hate me in there since I have been there everyday for the past 3 days with new challenges for them... The kids followed me to the train station, to the bank and to the grocery store. I still couldn't shake them an hour later... sheesh!
Today I got to explain a great American tradition: kissing someone on New Year's Eve. I was doing an activity called "What do you say if..." and it had all sorts of common English phrases, like What do you say if someone sneezes? "Bless you!" I was trying to get them to say things like "Happy Birthday!" and "Merry Christmas!" with feeling, and I demonstrated that on New Year's eve, you throw your hands in the air and shout "Happy New Year!" , then grab the person next to you and lay on a big wet one. I assured the scared ones that landing on the cheek was perfectly acceptable. The kids were terribly intrigued, the teachers were terribly frightened. After all, they are only junior high school kids...
By the way, the once curiousity and amusement I had at Britney Spears being played at sojii has turned to disdain as I have discovered that they play it EVERYDAY. The same songs. And I am only 2 weeks into it. This spells trouble.
6:40 PM

Tuesday, December 03, 2002

*... early morning observations ...*
Every morning when I leave for work, the world outside me is quite dead. Not what I expected with the usual hustle and bustle of the Japanese. But the fact is they all start their day way later than I do, so much so in fact that when i leave my house at 7am, I can cross the streets without looking for traffic, even in the (normally) busiest of places. At home, there would at least be quite a few stirrings and signs of life at that hour.
As I get deeper downtown, i have to try and decide which direction to take. If I feel I am running late, I usually turn and go up a side street; a path that I suspect is actually a longer route, but straighter, so I feel that I am making a beeline for the stop. Otherwise I weave in and out of little side streets.I can count the people I see on my frozen tingly fingers, that's how few there are. I get to pass the chain coffee shop that advertises selling "Pizz and Sand". Hahaha, why they had to abbreviate that is beyond me. It's right next door to the hair salon that promises 20% off... a joke that I think only my dad and I would appreciate the humor in. I also get to see the JFA every morning... that's the Japan Frisbee Dog Association. This, besides the coffee shop, is the only place open that early in the morning. Those early rising Frisbee dogs take their job seriously, I think.
Taking the weaving path leaves me with one final obstacle, a kind of roulette every morning. On the street I am walking down, they are inevitably picking up the garbage everyday at the exact time I am trolling by. So I faced with, or rather engulfed in, one of four smells: sugary pastries from Mister Donuts, trash, diesel from the trash truck, or an odd combination of cigarette smoke and Starbucks coffee wafting from the few locals awake enough to brave the morning, but still not awake enough to brave it without the aid of some sort of drug (or combination thereof).
If I don't take the weaving path, I come around the outside of the bus station to wait for my kuruma. Otherwise I charge through the middle of the station, give the lot of locals a once over, and immediately decide that I would much rather wait outside in the cold then be stuck indoors inhaling their smoke and ducking from their stares. Instead I stand outside at post, making faces at the locals driving by and staring. When my coach does arrive, we pile on, and most my fellow riders go to sleep. I wish I could, too, but I am afraid I will miss my stop. Plus, the way that my bus driver handles his bus, i need to stay awake and grip onto handles for dear life.

What a way to start a day, huh?
10:21 AM

Monday, December 02, 2002

*... yAwN ...*
I can't believe I survived one whole week of getting up earlier than the buttcrack of dawn, hauling foot to the bus center, and then trolling along for an hour everyday on the grimy ol' bus to go to work. This is a true test, especially having to roll off the floor when it is still black outside, and then getting home when it is dark again. If I didn't know better, I would think that my apartment never sees the sun.
The kids at Koshin are nice enough, and look at me in a sort of awe. I spent all last week doing my self-introduction to all the classes: "britt bingo!". I made up a bingo sheet with a different sentence about me in each box, and the kids had to guess whether it was true or not ("She had a pet pig", "She plays tennis", etc.). If they guessed right, they got to shade in the box to try and make bingo. They were really surprised at some of the answers, like "I HATE TAKOYAKI!" I found myself reverting to tour-guide mode by the end of the week, spouting off facts and jokes in perfect timing while my mind wandered off to somewhere completely different.
This past weekend I was a bit of an adventurer, hopping on a northbound train for a destination unknown at the time. I got off in a place called Atsumi, where I sat naked in front of strangers in a time-honored Japanese tradition of an onsen (hot spring). And then I trekked around a hill a bit, admiring a shrine built up the side of a very steep and slippery hill. Then I came back home and had to deal with the bustle of the holiday crowds on Sunday. That's one thing I am happy to try to avoid this year at holiday time. But I am not doing a very good job at dodging so far.
I also received a package of Christmas goodies from my family, and that meant so much. Especially the CD and movie of Trozzi traditions, and the toothbrush (always get a toothbrush in the stocking... have to make up for the sweets, ya know). I put them under my little tree (very little. Like a foot, if I am being generous) to be opened when the time is right.
I got to speak to a dear friend of mine, who, for the sake of his/her anonymity, shall remain nameless. They gave me a good laugh as they rehashed a recent scenario of the heart that so closely followed a past experience of my own (including the same NAME of the suitor!) that it was truly uncanny. But it is a good experience, I think, and will build character and make this person stronger, as weak as they might think they are when a certain someone comes 'round their door. Hahaha. Sorry, not laughing at the person, laughing at the irony of similarity and reflection of my own outcome.
By the way, I have turned the teachers of Koshin JHS onto Rocky Road ice cream. Success in any language. My work here is done, I think.
11:27 AM