Ah, it has been far too long since I have last written... I am not sure what to start with really, although I'm sure you are all avidly awaiting the end to my fairytale story.
However, I will briefly note my visit to Kyoto last weekend with a friend. Kyoto is one of the larger cities in Japan, formerly the imperial capital. It is well known for the various historic temples and shrines that surround the modernized city. So accommodated by a hostel a few minutes from the train station, we set out to discover Kyoto in 3 days. Much of our time of course, was spent in transit, as we figured out the bus and train systems, learning how to navigate our way around to get to the various destinations. (For a visual of what we saw, my pictures are online in the link I e-mailed out). I think we saw about four temples over the course of two days, some shrines and discovered the traditional shopping that seemed adjoined with every temple location. In the back of my mind was the fact I need to purchase a kimono or yukata to wear in my wedding next summer, but unfortunately, though shops were clustered everywhere, I was unable to find anything to fit my needs. However, we, by chance, discovered the main shopping area of Kyoto on our last day, after a brief visit to Gion (a traditional district). So, I may just have to hop the bullet train back to Kyoto another weekend to search for something to wear.
Kyoto station in and of itself was something to behold. Yes, sad to say but the modern architecture and various dimensions of the station held my interest more than the temples did. Really, I don't skimp anything by saying the station was quite large, with various staircases that led to new levels, sky bridges, a rooftop park and a giant staircase, literally about 5 or 6 stories high, cascading down the middle. We also found on the night before we returned to Shizuoka, Mister Donut! We had misfortune searching for it the days before, so it was rather exciting to discover.
I must also attest that the hostel experience was nothing to write home about (though i am writing about it) as we had to share a room with 5 other girls, who seemed to all own bags with 10 zippers on them and yards of plastic. Never have I heard so many zippers and plastic scrunching in my life. Then some girl decides to spray something on her hair/body/face so the particles fly around the room, finding my nose in an outright smell battle. Another girl thought it necessary to completely clear her sinus passages, as she sat blowing her nose for literally about 10 minutes, as I laid there, trying to sleep at 6 am, contemplating throwing something over the side of the bed in my half-conscious state - could be deemed as a mere sleep-activity occurrence. Yet how to explain that in Japanese, I have yet to learn.
In light of our sweaty, tiring days of endless walking, we decided to find an onsen (or what they call a sento if its just a bath not a hot springs type thing). After wandering around and deciding which sento to visit, we walked in, unsure of what was going to happen. So of course you get a key for a locker, you put all your stuff, clothes and all, in a basket and then in the locker. Of course I had to use the restroom before we went into the bath so the crazy lady that worked there who had already been hovering around us, escorted me to the bathroom, and as I was in there, according to my friend, the lady sat outside having a near panic attack. I kept hearing noises at the door when I was in there, but wasn't sure what was going on. When I opened the door, the lady nearly jumped on me, and practically led me back to my locker so I could strip down. Then she proceeded to put my things in the locker and close it, without me even trying. Then we asked for some soap, and went in, as she stood at the entrance to the bath, staring at us. I half expected her to rush in and start scrubbing me down too.
Life now seems more or less normal now as I have adjusted to it. In many ways I feel no different than I did in the States since I am just going about life as I did there, just using another language on top of English. My Japanese was put to the test today, fortunately for me since I have been pretty lazy about it lately. I went to the post office today to send some mail and though I really didn't understand what the man was saying, somehow it worked. I vowed to study up on how to send mail. Then, I decided to check out the kimonos in a nearby department store. I was very pleased to find out that I could communicate more than I thought I could, and came more naturally than I expected it would, though there were some words and phrases that I couldn't figure out how to say. However, I was able to get across that I am in a wedding in the States next July (I thought that was impressive). The workers at the store became very excited and showing me all the materials and even dressed me up in one and took a picture. Unfortunately, all the kimonos were at least a $1,000, and the one I saw that looked exactly like my dream kimono, the one in my head, was about $3,000. Needless to say, more than I would ever spend on any item of clothing. I cheered myself up with some donuts from Mister Donut.
I have been enjoying getting to know my students and talking with them, although it doesn't happen as much as I'd like. In English Club last week, though the girls are supposed to do some kind of report, I ended up chatting with some 2nd year students about other things. They asked if I have a boyfriend, to which I responded...no...... They got excited and asked if I was married, and I responded, no. Then they grew quite puzzled (since we figured that the term engagement isn't as commonly known here).
So back to my Prince Charming story.... well, I left off exclaiming that David should just spit out whatever it was that he had to say (since it had been driving me insane all day, and the weeks before that...). So, he turns away, says "hang on a sec" and messes with something, as I get a funny feeling in my stomach, knowing that SOMETHING is coming. He suddenly turns, and is holding an origami folded diamond. I remember my face becoming total shock that instant, since an origami folded diamond could only mean one thing, right? Well he said "I made you a gift, you need to open it." So I am trying to unfold this insanely folded origami diamond, and failing miserably (ten times more difficult than a map). I am peering in the parts I have managed to open as David tells me I can't peek, reaches over and helps me unfold it (who knows how long it would have taken me). I flipped it over, and there was a kitty in a sink, holding a ring in its paws (David photoshopped the ring in) with the words "Will you Meowy me??" across the top and bottom. As soon as the actual thought of the words registered, I immediately hugged him, ecstatic beyond belief that this was actually (and finally) happening, as I barely managed to squeak out "of course I will" since I was going into shock about the whole thing. He said something to the effect that he wouldn't want to spend the rest of his life with anyone else, to which I responded (as the tears start to fall) that I wanted that too but wasn't sure if it would happen, that what if this and what if that and all those other things girls blubber when they are emotional.
And that folks, is my proposal story. The man I had been waiting for, for five years, had finally proposed, and now we're planning a wedding! It is slowly starting to sink in, with all that there is to do and talk about, but I am excited beyond anything, and amazed at the good things that do come from patience, from healing, from a lot of hard work, and from faith. I have been blessed immeasurably and this is so far one of the greatest blessings I have received.
Anyway, to end a bit lighter, a spider that decided to inhabit my bathroom (not Fernando, he disappeared - a big spider) and I had been battling it out for about a week. Finally one day, I decided enough was enough and tried to drown him by pouring water on him to get him to fall in the toilet. That didn't work as he scampered behind the toilet. I tried again later when he came out again... and that failed again. So finally the other day, i spot him on the wall, and jump to find a shoe so I could smash him. And then - end of spider. His death was swift, and now he can be with the various other insects in bug heaven that I have sent in the last few weeks. They really should let their fellow kind know that entering my apartment is like a suicide mission. Or at least wonder why their friends don't reappear after a few days....
Friday, September 19, 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Japan is Like Disneyland
If I told you I went to a foreign country and found prince charming in 5 weeks would you believe me? Maybe if it was a movie or something right…
I debated whether to mention this delightful little detail in this blog – but figured it really is all part of the experience here, in an interesting way. Oh but prince charming can wait, since I should tell you about my first week of classes!
Last week was of course my first actual week teaching, although not too much teaching going on since we played Blackout along with my intro. It was interesting, especially when they all seemed to guess that my favorite Japanese food was sushi. Some guy wrote down “fugu” which is a delicacy in Japan, a poisonous fish that has to be cooked just right in order to eat it without dying. I laughed when I saw this, thinking to myself, well yes, I love to eat dangerously. Who doesn’t like an adrenaline rush when taking their first bite of a meal? I surely do.
The students are usually very tired and hot, and whenever asked how they are doing they usually reply that they are tired or sleepy. I usually nod sympathetically and say “me too” since I have not been sleeping much lately. Its fun though because I often make faces when I catch their eye in class or start laughing and they usually seem to enjoy this – it breaks up the monotony that is typically the atmosphere in my classrooms.
Also, supposedly my students love Ichiro (the baseball player) and I even made sure to put him in my presentation, but when I pointed it out, they seemed completely unenthused and some students didn’t even know who he was. Ok then…apparently he is not as much a god here as I thought…
I have been surprised by the boldness of many of my students, who come up to me and talk to me pretty regularly outside of class and even come find me in the teacher’s room and follow me out. I have to say though that my days tend to be long and slow due to only teaching 7 classes a week (and having to be at work 8 hours a day) so my real enjoyment (besides using my iphone under the desk) is the conversations I have with my students. I also am thankful that laughing, is universal, because I can make them all laugh really at any time, and they seem to really like this and respond well to me in that way. It reminds me of when I was in Seattle, and kids don’t look at me like all the other adults, and so they tell you more and feel more comfortable with you, and I’m happy that is how it is here as well.
Oh, my opening ceremony speech! How could I forget! The first day of school, of course the students all had to go outside and everyone had to practice putting out real fires on the field with fire extinguishers. I was completely fascinated as I’ve never seen anything like it, but stayed far enough away so I wouldn’t die from the fumes.
Then, when I thought we were all going to file inside the gym for a nice opening ceremony, we all just stayed outside, the principal in his combat boots and blue Shizuoka prefecture outfit and helmet (for the disaster drill). Then suddenly someone calls me and says I’m up next. WHAT???? NEXT??? What happened to inide the gym? So, I didn’t have time to think, walked up the stage and gave my spiel in Japanese and English. The Japanese seemed to go better than the English since the students all clapped wildly when I was done, and when I finished the English you could have heard a pin drop….until some teachers started clapping. Hm, suppose that is why I am here – to teach the Engrish.
Another amusing experience in class was just yesterday actually. The students were doing presentations for me about Japan. One group of boys were talking about Japanese language, and used the sounds of my name in Japanese to match it with kanji (the Chinese characters). The entire class was laughing as they wrote the characters on the board, and so I asked what they meant. They look at each other, then one boy calls out “beautiful! Beautiful!” as all the students laugh and the teacher chastises them. Of course I laughed too, how could I not? Turns out that the 3 kanji they used means Asia, save/protect, and wise. I thought it fit.
Now, the bugs are still awful. The other night a giant centipede type insect came bustling across my bedroom floor as I was reading in bed. Of course, I jump up, race to find the insectcide and spray relentless at the thing as it turned in circles, wriggling in pain. Finally, it met its fate, there on my bedroom floor.
This morning, another interesting looking bug surprised me in the middle of the living room, but it wasn’t alive, it was dead…. I’m not sure how it died. Perhaps I killed it in my sleep with some kind of spontaneous reaction like trained warriors have. Perhaps that is why I’m so sleepy every morning – I defend myself from bugs in my sleep.
Ah yes, so, traveled to Kanazawa, Ishikawa this past weekend to visit David, who has been a close friend/co-worker of mine for about 4-5 years. Many of you know the story and if you don’t you’ll find out soon enough, I really don’t feel the need to type it all in here and if you read my other blog at all, you know in a sense, how our relationship has gone.
Well, needless to say, when I met David I felt something was different and interesting about it and I couldn’t put my finger on it at the time, but as time went on things became more clear, and from various signs that confirmed my feelings (such as the fact he used a Mac, most guys don’t and I vowed never to marry a man who doesn’t use a Mac) I felt that really he was the one I wanted to marry. However, time and events took their toll, and like any interesting love story, ours certainly wasn’t normal by any means. However, my arrival in Japan suddenly seemed to do something, maybe the fact that the woman who’d been following him around for 5 years followed him to a foreign country (I don’t know what else screams HELLO! I’M HERE! Than that).
So…. We fell back into our old pattern of talking frequently for long periods of time, and I went to visit, and voila, came back engaged! Ok, well, actually it was more or less a day of sweaty beach walking, 3 hours in a sushi restaurant and then walking around in some famous park that really wasn’t entirely interesting since I couldn’t stop thinking about what David wanted to speak to me about. After sitting down on some random bench outside these bathrooms with the coolest neon gender sign (I took a picture, now forever to be treasured as a momento – but I suppose fitting for me with my attachment to bathrooms), we sat literally forever in silence as I attempted to defend myself from the psycho mosquitos. Finally, David says something about why I’m not talking, and I retort he is the one that said he had stuff to talk about. More silence, and half-conscious responses from David as he contemplates nervously. Smack. Smack smack, I am being attacked viciously by mosquitos. Finally, “just spit it out already!” Oh but, if I told you the rest of the story now it wouldn’t be any fun…. So you’ll just have to wait.
I did end up leaving with about 15 mosquito bites, mostly on my feet (one on my stomach, random), and of course, prince charming. To be continued.
I rode the Shinkansen for the first time when I went to Kanazawa, and it was basically like an airplane. My ears even got plugged like they usually do when I fly. Unfortunately the sun sets too early so I couldn’t see too much of the scenery. Really, it wasn’t as interesting as I thought it would be… but I did manage to have some interesting experiences, as someone came up asking for my ticket, but I didn’t hear him and thought he was asking for garbage so I hand over my wrappers from cookies and he says “ticket please.” Ah….sumimasen…
Then of course using a squat toilet on a Shinkansen is crazy. I know, a bit crude, but I kept laughing since the train is moving so much and you’re trying to balance over this thing so you don’t fly off the platform into the door.
And to end, on the note of laughter…David and I were riding the local train to sushi or somewhere and he made me laugh about something, well these girls sitting across the aisle from us also started laughing, and so I laughed more, then David started laughing, and so we’re both laughing and the girls are laughing and it was this endless cycle that just wouldn’t stop…..
I know you are familiar with this. So. Laugh, and laugh well.
I debated whether to mention this delightful little detail in this blog – but figured it really is all part of the experience here, in an interesting way. Oh but prince charming can wait, since I should tell you about my first week of classes!
Last week was of course my first actual week teaching, although not too much teaching going on since we played Blackout along with my intro. It was interesting, especially when they all seemed to guess that my favorite Japanese food was sushi. Some guy wrote down “fugu” which is a delicacy in Japan, a poisonous fish that has to be cooked just right in order to eat it without dying. I laughed when I saw this, thinking to myself, well yes, I love to eat dangerously. Who doesn’t like an adrenaline rush when taking their first bite of a meal? I surely do.
The students are usually very tired and hot, and whenever asked how they are doing they usually reply that they are tired or sleepy. I usually nod sympathetically and say “me too” since I have not been sleeping much lately. Its fun though because I often make faces when I catch their eye in class or start laughing and they usually seem to enjoy this – it breaks up the monotony that is typically the atmosphere in my classrooms.
Also, supposedly my students love Ichiro (the baseball player) and I even made sure to put him in my presentation, but when I pointed it out, they seemed completely unenthused and some students didn’t even know who he was. Ok then…apparently he is not as much a god here as I thought…
I have been surprised by the boldness of many of my students, who come up to me and talk to me pretty regularly outside of class and even come find me in the teacher’s room and follow me out. I have to say though that my days tend to be long and slow due to only teaching 7 classes a week (and having to be at work 8 hours a day) so my real enjoyment (besides using my iphone under the desk) is the conversations I have with my students. I also am thankful that laughing, is universal, because I can make them all laugh really at any time, and they seem to really like this and respond well to me in that way. It reminds me of when I was in Seattle, and kids don’t look at me like all the other adults, and so they tell you more and feel more comfortable with you, and I’m happy that is how it is here as well.
Oh, my opening ceremony speech! How could I forget! The first day of school, of course the students all had to go outside and everyone had to practice putting out real fires on the field with fire extinguishers. I was completely fascinated as I’ve never seen anything like it, but stayed far enough away so I wouldn’t die from the fumes.
Then, when I thought we were all going to file inside the gym for a nice opening ceremony, we all just stayed outside, the principal in his combat boots and blue Shizuoka prefecture outfit and helmet (for the disaster drill). Then suddenly someone calls me and says I’m up next. WHAT???? NEXT??? What happened to inide the gym? So, I didn’t have time to think, walked up the stage and gave my spiel in Japanese and English. The Japanese seemed to go better than the English since the students all clapped wildly when I was done, and when I finished the English you could have heard a pin drop….until some teachers started clapping. Hm, suppose that is why I am here – to teach the Engrish.
Another amusing experience in class was just yesterday actually. The students were doing presentations for me about Japan. One group of boys were talking about Japanese language, and used the sounds of my name in Japanese to match it with kanji (the Chinese characters). The entire class was laughing as they wrote the characters on the board, and so I asked what they meant. They look at each other, then one boy calls out “beautiful! Beautiful!” as all the students laugh and the teacher chastises them. Of course I laughed too, how could I not? Turns out that the 3 kanji they used means Asia, save/protect, and wise. I thought it fit.
Now, the bugs are still awful. The other night a giant centipede type insect came bustling across my bedroom floor as I was reading in bed. Of course, I jump up, race to find the insectcide and spray relentless at the thing as it turned in circles, wriggling in pain. Finally, it met its fate, there on my bedroom floor.
This morning, another interesting looking bug surprised me in the middle of the living room, but it wasn’t alive, it was dead…. I’m not sure how it died. Perhaps I killed it in my sleep with some kind of spontaneous reaction like trained warriors have. Perhaps that is why I’m so sleepy every morning – I defend myself from bugs in my sleep.
Ah yes, so, traveled to Kanazawa, Ishikawa this past weekend to visit David, who has been a close friend/co-worker of mine for about 4-5 years. Many of you know the story and if you don’t you’ll find out soon enough, I really don’t feel the need to type it all in here and if you read my other blog at all, you know in a sense, how our relationship has gone.
Well, needless to say, when I met David I felt something was different and interesting about it and I couldn’t put my finger on it at the time, but as time went on things became more clear, and from various signs that confirmed my feelings (such as the fact he used a Mac, most guys don’t and I vowed never to marry a man who doesn’t use a Mac) I felt that really he was the one I wanted to marry. However, time and events took their toll, and like any interesting love story, ours certainly wasn’t normal by any means. However, my arrival in Japan suddenly seemed to do something, maybe the fact that the woman who’d been following him around for 5 years followed him to a foreign country (I don’t know what else screams HELLO! I’M HERE! Than that).
So…. We fell back into our old pattern of talking frequently for long periods of time, and I went to visit, and voila, came back engaged! Ok, well, actually it was more or less a day of sweaty beach walking, 3 hours in a sushi restaurant and then walking around in some famous park that really wasn’t entirely interesting since I couldn’t stop thinking about what David wanted to speak to me about. After sitting down on some random bench outside these bathrooms with the coolest neon gender sign (I took a picture, now forever to be treasured as a momento – but I suppose fitting for me with my attachment to bathrooms), we sat literally forever in silence as I attempted to defend myself from the psycho mosquitos. Finally, David says something about why I’m not talking, and I retort he is the one that said he had stuff to talk about. More silence, and half-conscious responses from David as he contemplates nervously. Smack. Smack smack, I am being attacked viciously by mosquitos. Finally, “just spit it out already!” Oh but, if I told you the rest of the story now it wouldn’t be any fun…. So you’ll just have to wait.
I did end up leaving with about 15 mosquito bites, mostly on my feet (one on my stomach, random), and of course, prince charming. To be continued.
I rode the Shinkansen for the first time when I went to Kanazawa, and it was basically like an airplane. My ears even got plugged like they usually do when I fly. Unfortunately the sun sets too early so I couldn’t see too much of the scenery. Really, it wasn’t as interesting as I thought it would be… but I did manage to have some interesting experiences, as someone came up asking for my ticket, but I didn’t hear him and thought he was asking for garbage so I hand over my wrappers from cookies and he says “ticket please.” Ah….sumimasen…
Then of course using a squat toilet on a Shinkansen is crazy. I know, a bit crude, but I kept laughing since the train is moving so much and you’re trying to balance over this thing so you don’t fly off the platform into the door.
And to end, on the note of laughter…David and I were riding the local train to sushi or somewhere and he made me laugh about something, well these girls sitting across the aisle from us also started laughing, and so I laughed more, then David started laughing, and so we’re both laughing and the girls are laughing and it was this endless cycle that just wouldn’t stop…..
I know you are familiar with this. So. Laugh, and laugh well.
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