Races, Pokemon, and Markets

Update time! Thus far, life in Japan is going pretty splendidly and it seems that getting accustomed to things over here is getting easier by the day. My speaking level of Japanese is probably at the level when I last left Japan (which makes sense I suppose considering I studied abroad for two months and I`ve been here for two months). Anyway, here is a collection of anecdotes about what I`ve been up to since my last update.

Two weekends ago, I ran a 5k in one a neighboring village called Yanagida. The village, which is situated in the middle of the mountains, offered some truly spectacular scenery during the race.

After I finished the race, I was welcomed with an assortment of stalls selling food that would be quite uncommon after a race in the States. Deciding to purchase whatever seemed the most popular with the masses, I celebrated my completion of the 5k by buying a fish on a stick (much to my chagrin, it was incredibly salty, which being dehydrated after a race did not for a merry Christmas make). 

After I consumed my salty little friend, I noticed that a very long line had started in front of one of the stands, which was emanating a most pleasant aroma. The long wait turned out to be worthy endeavor as this stand sold these very delicious pastries, which I can only describe as pancakes with fillings (I purchased the sweet bean paste and custard filled ones).

so delicious!

While waiting in line for the dessert, I had a very interesting conversation with a Japanese lady who spoke English pretty well and she told me all about her experience as a medical volunteer in Mongolia. Indeed, speaking with her and listening to her adventure has really made my fervor for travel throughout East Asia burn ever stronger.

School continues to provide interesting learning experiences and amusing anecdotes as well. One interesting thing I noticed is that the world maps in Japanese classrooms all seem to place Japan and East Asia at the center of the world, rather than the Euro-centric one we often see in the west. I guess it`s to be expected though that any culture will obviously view themselves at the center of the world, but it is nevertheless interesting how that message is conveyed either intentionally or even unintentionally by maps.

Japan-centric map

Another observation I’ve made is that some things are more or less universally popular at every Japanese school I’ve been to thus far and indeed, it has been interesting how much overlap in interests there seems to be between 1^st graders and 9^th graders. Virtually every student loves Pokemon whether a boy, girl, 1^st grader or 9^th grader. (One of the most common questions I get asked at BOTH elementary and junior highs is “what is your favorite Pokemon?”). In addition, virtually every student has told me that they like the manga (Japanese comic) One Piece. Again, there is very little variation between older and younger and between boys and girls. Furthermore, boy bands and girl bands are insanely popular over here as well (The most popular of which is a group called AKB48, which has 48 members!) The popularity of these bands definitely brings me back to the 90’s and the glory days of the Backstreet Boys and the Spice Girls.

On a more amusing note, however, last Friday I was told at the last minute by one of my teachers that I would be conducting a class all by self! Adding to my shock was that she gave me a worksheet for the students to fill out and told me that after 20 minutes I was to provide another worksheet with all the answers. My first thought was that there was no way in hell that the students would put any effort into the assignment and my thoughts turned out to be quite accurate. Thus, realizing that I was fighting a losing battle, I gave up any pretentions of them actually working on the sheet and did my best to just chat and have fun with the kids in English. This led to a very amusing conversation explaining the concept of a ladies’ man to some of my students. The topic came up when one of the kids was goofing around and writing in English about how his friend “loved” a girl in the neighboring class. Remarkably, when I told the English what had transpired she really didn’t seem all too upset and indeed even told me that she thought it was a good idea so I guess it worked out in the end.

Also, at one of my elementary schools, one of my students drew a cool Samurai picture for me that now stands proudly on my fridge. (Not too bad for a fifth grader!)

Better artist than me already

Last weekend, I was invited to go out with Jillian (my fellow JET in Noto) and one of my coworkers for dinner. I had a great time ordering trying out all of the cool flavors at the all-you-can drink soda and latte bar (melon soda and strawberry lattes are excellent) and honing my Japanese skills with all of them. The next day, I went to Kanazawa for night of fun at a local club and stayed a fellow JETs place for the night. I really am in love with Kanazawa it has also the niceties and conveniences of a city without the urban blight and overcrowded feel of Tokyo.

After the night of revelry, I awakened and wandered around Kanazawa and did some exploring around my friend`s neighborhood. Much to my satisfaction, there seemed to be some sort of Sunday market going on that was selling an abundance of delicious food and cool looking lacquer ware. I personally bought some steak slathered in teriyaki sauce and some chicken tikka masala from of the stands that was selling Indian food. 

There were also various performances going on and I stopped to watch some Tahitian dancers and a hip-hop group putting on their moves. 

At this point however, the effects of a typhoon were in full swing and my umbrella turned into more use as a projectile weapon rather than a protective measure against the torrential wind and rain so I retreated back to my friends place.

Well that's all for now folks, plans for the future include pear picking in a nearby town, and going to an event called Undokai but more on that in the ne

Another Day Another Festival (and Enkai)

            Howdy everyone, time for another update in the land of the rising sun. I continue to learn more and more about the Japanese education everyday but last weekend offered some really interesting and new insights when I was invited to one of my schools’ taiikumatsuri or sports festivals. At first, I thought that the schools’ sports festival would be something roughly comparable to a track and field day such as I encountered back in my time in elementary school. However, the Japanese sports festival was actually something quite different. The festival consisted of the students playing a variety games, virtually all of which were focused on teamwork and group efforts. Thus, instead of events that celebrate individual athletic achievement such as the 200m dash, pole-vaulting, or shot put, games such as tug o’ war and three legged races were the norm. Adding to the theme of group effort and teamwork, the sports festival, somewhat strangely, consisted of synchronized dance routines to Japanese pop music (often called J-pop), which leads me to believe the translation “sports festival” is a slight misnomer. Nevertheless, the festival  was quite a lot of fun to watch and quite enlightening on how group values are hammered in at Japanese schools.  

           Still, there were a few events in which students competed as individuals such as an obstacle course of which I was apart of. During my portion of the obstacle course, the students had to beat me in a game of janken (Japanese version of rock paper scissors) in order to pass to the next obstacle. On an interesting side note,  janken carries a lot of weight in Japanese schools from what I’ve seen. Indeed, many a dispute is resolved and many a decision made via janken, which means that almost all of the students have the remarkable ability to play the game at lightning fast speeds that I ne’er thought impossible. Suffice to say, a significant amount of students were able to obliterate me during the obstacle course. Unfortunately, I have been told that I am not allowed to take pictures of my students and post them on blogs, Facebook, etc. so I can’t provide any pictures of the sports festival.

            After the sports festival was finished, I was invited to yet another enkai (office party). This enkai, however, differed in that we started off by going to an onsen (a public bath or hot spring). As those who enter an onsen are forbidden to wear clothes, the group separated between the males and females. After getting used to the fact that I was surrounded by a bunch of nude middle-aged men, I daresay entering the onsen was one of the more relaxing things I’ve ever done. After the onsen, the whole party came back together for dinner, which was a delectable selection of various sashimi (raw fish slices), miso soup, grilled shrimp, rice, and as always, plenty of beer and sake.

Delicious!

         Although I thoroughly enjoy enkais (good places to bond and have fun with my fellow teachers) I must confess that I hope there won’t be any more for a while. Enkais are absurdly expensive! This last enkai set me back a good 7700 yen or about 98 dollars!

        The day after the enkai, I went to a festival called the Lion Dance that was being held in the city of Tsubata, about an hour and half south of my home in Noto-chou. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, Japanese festivals are really intense, and this festival proved to live up to that promise and even raised the bar a little bit. In this festival, pairs of dancers took turns dancing in the middle of an intersection with various weapons such as spears and katanas. 

The Spear Dance

        Surrounding these dancers at each corner of the intersection were groups of Japanese men (all very drunk of course) carrying a large dragon float. Each of these various dragon float groups would then take turns crossing different corners to beat the ever-loving crap out of the other groups. Indeed, the level of violence was so intense that at one point, I literally saw one guy jump up and side kick another guy right in the stomach. Fascinatingly, however, as soon as the dragon float retreated, all of the fighters would more or less stop and start hugging each other. 

            

          Thinking about if this type of festival were to happen in the States, I can only imagine a full-scale riot ensuing.  At the end of the festival, however, the participants were not in the process of rioting as many of them had ended up like this gentleman here:

Vanquished by the Festival

             As the day after the festival shenanigans was a public holiday (Respect for the Aged Day) several JETs and I went to an island on the Noto peninsula and did some swimming. Once more, the water was ridiculously warm, the surrounding area stunning, and the atmosphere serene. The swim was made especially magical by an abundance of fish that would leap very high out of the water to catch mayflies.

JETs on the Beach

            In terms of work, things are starting to look up in one of my junior highs at least. It seems I can get a lot student’s attention by shouting vocabulary words at the top of my lungs and by using an array of goofy voices and impressions of celebrities. This always seems to do the trick in terms of catching their attention and after that, they seem much more apt to participate when I need them to.

            

            On a sadder note, come October, a new Japanese law will come into effect that is basically the SOPA law that was defeated in the States several months ago. Since the wording of the law is very vague, it is entirely feasible that I could get arrested and fined for watching videos on Youtube. As I already don’t have access to Spotify, Netflix, and Hulu over here, this news certainly comes as huge blow to my spare time. Time to watch ALL the Youtube while I can!

            Anyway that’s all for now. Not too much happening this weekend except maybe a trip to Kanazawa this Saturday for dinner. Talk to y’all later and I hope to see some of you on skype soon!

Lessons from a Japanese Classroom

Hello everyone it's been a while! My life has really shifted from 0 to 60 in the last week so I have had precious little time and energy to update the ol' blog. Without further ado, here is what I have been up to since my last post.

Starting last week, my job teaching English truly began as all of the students returned to school from summer vacation. As mentioned before, I am currently teaching at  3 elementary schools and 3 junior highs. As the area I live in is rural and sparsely populated, the class sizes are consequently little with some grades being as small as 8 kids. As an assistant language teacher (ALT) my job entitles coordinating English classes with local Japanese English teachers. 

The reality of the situation, however, is that every school I visit operates very differently both in terms of what the school expects of me and in the behavior of the students. At some schools, it seems that the teachers don`t really know what to do with me and I am mostly regulated to being a human tape recorder regurgitating vocabulary words. At other schools, however, I have lot more opportunity to add my own input into the lesson and work a lot more closely with the teachers. In particular, this tends to happen more at the elementary school level where the teachers' English abilities are often not as good. Interestingly, one elementary school even has me helping out with Japanese lessons! There are two western kids (Canadians I think) whose parents are local missionaries so sometimes I help their Japanese tutor translate basic Japanese phrases and vocab into English and vice-versa. 

In terms of student behavior, again, there seems to be a great amount of variance between each school. On the whole, there is a noticeable disconnect between elementary and junior high students. The best way to describe my elementary school students would be enthusiastic and chaotic. Almost all of them seem very very very excited to have me in the class and went absolutely crazy when I did my self-introduction lesson. In particular, they loved seeing pictures of Minnesota animals and I almost started a riot in some classes when I said that I liked Totoro (a famous Japanese cartoon). Indeed, teaching at elementary school even caused me to become injured as I sprained my toe while jumping around for one of the classes (they wanted to see how high I could jump since I am a giant here). I daresay I did not expect to get injured while teaching here haha. Regardless, teaching at elementary schools is definitely a lot of fun and something I really enjoy doing. 

Junior High, on the other hand, is a completely different ball game. Although almost all of the students smile, wave, and seem very excited to see me outside of class. However, the moment the bell rings, it is like an invisible soul-sucking vampire has leeched all of that enthusiasm out of them. Most of the junior high students I teach are INCREDIBLY quiet in class and just getting one of them to even say "hello my name is blank", is like pulling teeth. More often than not, I will get either a blank stare or the student in question will have their eyes towards the floor and mutter so quietly I can't even hear them. I hope that this will pass in time as I get to know them more, but it is still a very strange phenomenon to me nevertheless. 

Here are some miscellaneous things I`ve noticed about the Japanese education, some good, some bad and some things that are just different.

Good: The school lunches! Japanese school lunches kick the crap out of American ones as the food is not only edible, but quite tasty as well. Plus I get to eat with the kids, which creates a more relaxed atmosphere. (The teachers eat with them as well).

Bad: The lack of participation and disinterested atmosphere of most junior high classes.

Good: The friendliness of junior high students outside the classroom.

Different: It is acceptable and quite common to see members of the same sex holding hands (in a platonic way).

Good: The elementary school kids are adorable and a lot of fun to teach.

Bad: Things can get out of hand quick with them if the teacher or I don`t calm them down.

Good: Japanese students are given more responsibility for their school. This means that they are in charge of cleaning. This creates a good atmosphere of collective responsibility that make for very clean schools free of vandalism.  

Different: Japanese kids are given homework over summer vacation I guess it’s good that they aren't like American kids who forget everything over break, but I can`t imagine they`re too thrilled about it haha.

Bad: Lesson plans seem a little disorganized for English classes at the elementary school level so I often don`t know what I'll be teaching until I get there. I guess it`s not too bad though as long as I have a generic game that can be applied to many lessons (ex. Simon says)

Keeping my eye out for: Bullying. Apparently it can be a huge problem in Japanese schools and as almost all of it is done by electronic devices (phones and facebook) and it is increasingly difficult for teachers to catch it.

Funny: Some of the questions I get from Japanese students some of which are over the top personal. Top ones thus far are: What is your blood type? Do you have a girlfriend? How much do you weigh? How much money do you make? Will you marry the the teacher you are working with? I mostly just laugh it off or make up a lie like I have 10 girlfriends (that usually gets them giggling).

After a very exhausting week, one of my schools invited me to an enkai, or office party, last Friday. This presented a wonderful chance to immerse myself in Japanese customs and to get to know my co-workers better so, of course, I accepted. The enkai took place at a nearby izakaya (kind of like a bar that serves a variety of drinks and grilled food) and was a very fascinating experience. The first thing that I noticed about the enkai was that although it presented a rare opportunity for the teachers to be at ease, it nevertheless had certain rituals that had to be followed before the revelry began. Each person had a designated seating arrangement based on seniority, and it was absolutely important, I was told, to not start drinking or eating until the principal gave the official kanpai! (cheers). After this ritual was finished, however, the environment underwent a drastic change. Gone where all the rigidity and social hierarchy and in came a much more egalitarian and relaxed atmosphere. Indeed, by the end of the night I was surrounded by some very inebriated colleagues, which is totally acceptable and, indeed, almost expected here.

The food served at the enkai was also a very fascinating experience. For every four of us sitting at a table, we were provided with raw ingredients, a small grill, and a cup of sesame sauce in which to dip these ingredients once they had been cooked. The ingredients consisted of basic raw veggies such as cabbages, onions, and peppers. The meat was more exotic consisting of various cow parts such as tongue, stomach, and intestines. Although many of my American readers probable revile the thought of eating such bizarre foods, I must say that they really were quite delicious (For those of you who watch Andrew Zimmer, know that he also praises the flavors of intestine and tongue). Unfortunately, I forgot my camera so I didn't document the affair. Oh well. 

I also experienced my first pang of homesickness last week. I guess it came when I saw all the facebook statuses about going back to Gustavus from all of my friends. It hurts even more knowing it will be at least another two years before I can attend my fraternity's (Sigma Alpha Epsilon) initiation ceremony as an alumni. Still, I am enjoying life here a lot and find that even the little things can go a long way to combat homesickness. For example, I recently discovered that the bakery by my house has really good deals on delicious baguettes (the guy who runs the place is an Aussie so he knows his stuff) so I can now get my bread fix, which helps a lot.

Flatt's Bakery

 I also recently bought a bicycle and there are some really spectacular mountain and seaside trails I can ride around here, which I find very therapeutic. 

The trail I take

Also, as some of you have requested, here is a picture of my car. It is a Toyota and it is called a "Starlet" (yeah I know they give cars realllly weird names over here). Thus, I have christened it with the name Starlet Johansson.  

Starlet Johansson

輪島大祭 (Wajima Taisai)

Howdy doody everyone! Time for another update.

As stated in my last post, last wednesday, I was asked to read Edgard Allen Poe`s The Raven to a Japanese audience. The reading itself was quite a bizzare and surreal experience. Having never acted or done dramatic readings before, it took all of my inner strength to not burst out laughing and knowing I was speaking to an audience who had absolutely no idea what I was saying. Further compounding the hilarity of the situation was listening to the Japanese translation of The Raven that my supervisor was reading. One can only hear Nebamoru the Japanese phonetic translation of nevermore so many times before they start to crack up. Even worse, the only instance where I`ve actually heard The Raven read outloud was from The Simpsons` Halloween episode adaption. As this version was read by the sublime voice of James Earl Jones, that is precisely the voice that was running through my head the whole time. Suffice to say, I must have looked very strange trying to contort my face into serious mode the whole time. Oh, and I forgot to mention the whole thing was going to the local newspaper. Here is the article that was published:

Famous

After this rather strange episode, I got my very first taste of a Japanese matsuri (festival) last weekend. Before I go into detail about my experience, I will give a little background on Japanese  religion that I feel is important to undertand. One important aspect of religion in Japan that is important to be cognizant of is Shinto (roughly translates to the way of the gods). Shintoism and religion is a rather complicated subject and I am oversimplifying, of course, but Shinto can be thought of as Japan`s native religion. Shinto generally holds that the world is inhabited by kami (gods or spirits) and that they are present in all forms of nature in the world, from living things such as animals and trees, to inanimate objects such as rocks. Another important aspect of religion in Japan is Buddhism, which was exported to Japan via China and Korea in roughly the 6th century. One way that the Japanese concept of religion has differed greatly from many wetsern attitudes is that religious views are not neccissarily mutually exclusive. Thus, one can similtaneously be both Buddhist and Shinto at the same time. Indeed, over the years, these religions have meshed together so much that it is often very difficult to tell which traditions and temples are exclusively Buddhist and which are Shinto.

Japanese festivals are traditionally a product of this mixed Buddhist/Shinto worldview and many concern kami or incarnations of the Buddha in some fashion. Some of these are done to thank the gods for favorable historical events (such as Wajima Taisai, part of it commemorates the warding off of enemy Samurai in the 16th century), others are meant to praise a certain kami, or to ward off evil spirits. In conclusion, they are very diverse in meaning. Interestingly enough though, it would seem that the meaning is lost on many participating in the festivals and is widely used as an event to get and drunk and go CRAZY! I caps locked the word "crazy" because Wajima Taisai is very much one of the most wild celebrations in which I've ever participated. Whole streets were filled wall to wall with very inebriated (and still holding their beers and sake in hand) and very wild Japanese people.

Waiting by the kirko (portable shrines).

Anyway, Wajima Taisai goes on for four nights! Each night, different squads of very drunk Japanese carry their respective kiriko (portable shrines) throughout the streets of Wajima spinning them wildly and banging on Taiko drums the whole time. The bellow clips are of a kiriko being carried and spinned, and a guy dressed as Spiderman banging on Taiko drums (like I said, very wild party).

Who knew Spiderman was a very good drunk taiko player?

After the various squads of kiriko arrive at their destination, the festival gets even wilder. A giant pole is set up in the middle of the town where the various teams gather. The pole is then promptly set on fire because drunk people and fire is a always a good combination. It gets even better though, in the pole is a special stick that if a team grabs and returns to their base, they are granted good fortune. At this point in the festival, I felt as though I were in the middle of a mosh pit as various teams literally brawled with each other around the blazing pole to get that stick. I would post a video of it, but evidently I have reach the max amount of memory allotted in this post. Maybe I'll put it up on a different one.

In terms of getting used to life in Japan, as always, the language barrier proves to be the greatest challenge. For those of you who are familiar with the film Good Burger, I often find myself repeating Ed (see link).

きれい金沢 (Beautiful Kanazawa)

            Hello everyone! I return to you now with another update. Again, a lot has happened since my last post so I will try to summarize as best as I can. Life in Japan continues to be fantastic and I am still filled with euphoria about living here despite the language barrier and various cultural disparities that inevitably happen everyday. I have started going to the assorted junior highs and elementary schools I will be teaching at and am doing my best to learn the names of my co-workers but, alas, I have quite a few of them and it is proving to be an arduous task (time to make a seating chart it seems). As classes won’t commence until early September, most of my time at the office has thus far been spent studying Japanese and preparing my English self-introduction that I will give to all my schools (fun fact many of you who are reading this post will be featured).

            In terms of non-work related events, my last two weekends have been filled with all sorts of interesting experiences. Two Saturdays ago, I was invited to a puppet show performed by the students of Kanazawa University for the local children in one of my nearby villages. The show was a good opportunity to meet some of the local kids, and I was rather glad the show was for children because I could actually understand most of the simple Japanese vocab and grammar being employed (I was able understand stuff made for 1^st graders Woot! Woot!) From what I gathered, the puppet show was about a group of children who encounter a Kappa (a Japanese mythical creature that is like a turtle-monkey combination) and the shenanigans that follow.

Kappa Play

        The next day, my Japanese Board of Education supervisor, Muroishi-san, generously invited my co-worker, Jillian, and myself over to his house for dinner. I had a splendid time meeting his family and eating myself silly with all of the delicious food his wife made. We concluded the evening by setting off some fireworks and listening to Muroishi-san talk about Japanese constellations (of which he apparently knows everything according to his wife).

Delicious

            This last weekend, from Thursday to Sunday, I had the privilege to visit the capital of Ishikawa prefecture, the beautiful city of Kanazawa for the new Ishikawa JETs’ orientation. As Kanazawa was one of the few major Japanese cities to be spared the horrors of being firebombed during World War II, the city has preserved much of its traditional architectural heritage, making it very similar to Kyoto. Unfortunately, my trip did not begin on a high note as when I took the bus to Kanazawa, I missed the stop I was supposed to get off at and had to walk a good 30 minutes in the stifling heat (in a suit no less) to the prefectural office where orientation was being held. Despite this bump in the road, orientation was a lot of fun and it was great getting to meet all of colleagues in the Ishikawa prefecture. That night, several other JETs and I went to a cool restaurant in downtown Kanazawa where I had some very delicious raw tuna.

Kanazawa Station

            One thing that really caught my eye in Kanazawa the first night was the number of young people. The reason that this caught my attention can be traced to Japan’s demographic situation, and some would say, woes. Japan, especially in rural areas (aka my town) is currently suffering from a gross population imbalance where the old significantly outnumber the young. Indeed, rural areas in Japan suffer from this trend even more as virtually all of the young people flee to the cities after graduating from high school. I have certainly seen this demographic trend in Noto-Cho as everyone between the ages of 18 to about 30 is virtually absent.

            Anyway, I digress, the next day in Kanazawa was more orientation stuff followed by a bar crawl at the end of the day. The first bar we went to was owned by a fellow American and the people who went had great fun imitating each others accents (fun fact ask someone from New Zealand to say Moscow Mule with an American accent hilarious results will follow, kind of sounds like Yosemite Sam). Next we went to a St. Louis themed bar where the bartenders juggle booze for peoples birthdays and suffice to say it was a lot of fun watching them.

The average American according to New Zealand

On Saturday, I had the chance to do some sightseeing of the city and saw some really cool things. The first site I visited was Kanazawa Castle. The castle grounds were enormous and took me a good 40 minutes to explore in its entirety.

Kanazawa Castle

The only bad note at the castle was an absolutely terrifying encounter with the dreaded Osuzumebachi. Indeed, even the Japanese couples that were walking next to me absolutely started booking it when they saw this evil spawn of nature.

Watch out for the Suzumebachi

After this encounter with Satan-bee, I visited the nationally renowned Kenrokuen garden. I vow to return to this gorgeous place during Sakura season when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom. 

Scenes from Kenroku-en Garden

round noon, I headed over to a picnic by the Saigawa River that was being held by several older JETs and had a good time conversing with many old and new JETs.

Picnic at the river

            The next day, the Noto JETs and I headed back up to the depths of Noto and stopped by the city of Wajima on the way, which has a thriving market every Sunday. One of the highlights was going into an antique store that was actually selling Samurai armor, and medieval era katanas, spears and muskets. According to one of the older JETs, these old artifacts are evidently rather cheaper than one would expect in Japan as long as they weren’t owned by anyone famous. However, it is also quite illegal to take these artifacts out of the country so don’t expect any Samurai armor souvenirs. 

Samurai armor for sale!

I did, however make a fine purchase of grilled cuttlefish, which despite its rather intimidating looking appearance was quite tasty.

Grilled Cuttlefish

            That’s all for now folks, I expect something else amusing will happen this upcoming week. Randomly, I have been asked to read the English translation of “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe for the local international society. Having never done anything to do with poetry or dramatic reading ever this should prove quite interesting (half of me wants to say the lyrics to Barney the Dinosaur darkly and see if anyone can actually understand me). Also coming up this weekend is a local Matsuri (festival) in Wajima that is supposed to be a good time.