Friday, May 09, 2003

*... ignorance? bliss? ...*
6 years ago (well, tomorrow, technically) marks the day that I was in my bedroom getting dolled up to head off to Prom. Not that I relive this moment every year as a nostalgic longing for days of yore, (my high school years, though fabulous at the time, are better left in those days of yore) but I was teaching about American culture and I had a picture of me at Prom which had the date on it. Overall, Prom was Prom; if I remember correctly, Natalie and I ditched our dates for the dance floor (surprise!), so the 'magic' that is usually associated with the event may have been a bit skewed. But the fact that the event exists at all says a lot for America, at least in regards to students. The Japanese kids (high school and junior high) are incredibly involved at school... or, rather, school incredibly involves them (an entirely different notion altogether). School becomes their babysitter, their discipline (well, that's questionable, but implied), and their guardian, but NOT their social outlet as it was for me. Students don't intermingle amongst grades or even between different homerooms (kumi) in the same grade. There are no Friday night football games or supporting pep rallies, no funky or formal dances, no lunchtime activities where someone inevitably ends up soaked or covered in whipped cream, no Homecoming or newspaper or yearbook... Nothing to bring the school together for the sake of solidarity. Instead, in Japanese schools, there are events that are based on intra-school competition, pitting the classes and students against one another, and only one another, and the most excitement over anticipating victory is trying to guess which 3rd year class will win this time 'round (because it seems that only the 3rd years are allowed to win (?)). From my perspective, this strictly kumi-vs-kumi approach only stands to perpetuate the distance, socially, between the students, and it is hard for me to understand what it is exactly that entices students to commit so much time and self to school. I guess we all have our own definition of "fun", or "time well spent" for that matter...
5:08 PM

Tuesday, May 06, 2003

*... mariko's 6th sense ...*
Mariko : "I'll turn here... I think..."
Me : "Are we lost?"
Mariko : "Maybe... But don't worry, I have a sixth sense about these things"
Me : "And what does your sixth sense say?"
Mariko : "That we should have turned the other way..."
Yesterday I wove through Shirone-shi and Maki-machi in a half-Tour-de-Niigata-adventure, half-we're-really-lost-catastrophe... all at ridiculously high speeds on ridiculously narrow streets (what we Americans would consider alleyways, and that may be a generous comparison, space-wise). The slight panic I felt all day wasn't helped by Mariko declaring "I'm a beginner driver, so I'm a little nervous... whoops!" every time we got in the car. She also noted that she was driving "Silvia" that day, because her husband wouldn't let her drive the other car, (she has a history of running into things... hmmm). I guess I should be grateful we had the car at all, since she originally proposed we take our bikes to Shirone to go strawberry picking ("Don't worry, it's only one or two hours away..." Err, there's a big difference between one and two hours, especially if you're on a bike!). She ditched the bike idea when she saw the cloudy weather (more ideal biking conditions compared to blazing sun, if you ask me, but I didn't want to press the bike issue too much). By the way her "sixth sense" was navigating us, I wouldn't have been surprised if we had cycled right into the Shinano River at some point. When we finally made it to the strawberry place, we found the berries to be non-existent (they said it was a busy weekend, but I suspected the random goats roaming around may have had something to do with it). The few choice berries I DID find were quickly picked over by a 90-degree obaachan (really old ladies are bent at the waist so their torsos are parallel to the ground... an amazing feat of physics) who deemed them unworthy and threw them in the dirt, presumably for the goat's pleasure. We decided to get out of there after a random toddler really wanted to take a picture with me (she couldn't speak, but insisted the photo be taken... I feel sorry for the parents, who are going to get the pic back and wonder who the heck is holding their kid) and we went to ramen, where I oh-so-gracefully managed to spray the place down in miso when I abruptly started laughing, mid-slurp. (I have yet to master proper noodle-slurping techniques, and the mental image of it usually causes me to laugh, face dangerously close to being dunked in my soup. I'm surprised I haven't choked yet.) My white knuckles and nervous stomach weren't helped much on the way up Yahiko Mountain, careening up a tiny road with Mariko scaring me half-to-death yelling "LOOK! Look at the view!!" and me yelling back "Watch the road! All I can see are trees! YOU, THE ROAD!" and both of us cheering on the car "Ganbare, Silvia!" The view from atop the mountain turned out to be more dense and less tasty than the koshi-hikari (rice) ice cream we got up there before we wound our way down the mountain (more screaming) and up the coastline, stopping at a deserted sea-side town to scramble over some molten rocks and then headed home. Poor Silvia was tired, afterall.
4:36 PM

Monday, May 05, 2003

*... winkwink nudgenudge ...*
Nishiwaki-sensei : "Britt, this is your horoscope, when is your birthday?"
Me : "July 5th"
Nishiwaki-sensei : "Oh, so you're a Cancer? Hmm... let's see... It says here that you will have an intelligent month, so write down any good ideas..."
Me : "Okay..."
Nishiwaki-sensei : "And your money will get better at the end of the month..."
Me : "Makes sense, that's when I get paid..."
Nishiwaki-sensei : "And you will get lucky in the movie theater."
Me : "WHAT?!"
Nishiwaki-sensei : "You will get lucky in a movie theater."
Me : "Are you sure it says I will 'get lucky' in a movie theater?"
Nishiwaki-sensei : "Yes, that's what it says. See, everyone gets lucky somewhere: Scorpios will get lucky in the gym, and Virgos will get lucky in parking lots..."
Me : "Hmm... well I guess that gives me plans for this weekend..."

5:51 PM