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.