I know tonight everyone dressed up back in the States, to go out and beg for candy (or perhaps to get drunk), and I have not missed the pre-Halloween prep that I generally experienced in the past. The closest I got to Halloween this year was allowing my students the chance to decorate pumpkins (drawings) rather than forcing another worksheet upon their already burned out and tired minds. In fact, my 1st year students even had a test today - and it's Saturday. Yes, every once in awhile these children have Saturday school, and not as a form of punishment. I believe I have to work on Saturday in a couple weeks.
As it has been a couple months, I am starting to grow accustomed to the expectations I believe my teachers and school has of me. It has been a bit uncomfortable and awkward, as any new situation ever is, and especially when they are not overt in what they want. Nonetheless, I feel as if I have broken through the initial stages of adjustment to a new job and have found a pretty good rapport with many of my students and teachers. More of the students seem to feel comfortable with me and often greet me or talk to me outside of class, much as I would expect when I was in Seattle. In fact just yesterday as I was leaving to go home, the baseball boys (who were out practicing on the field) all turned and took off their hats to nod their heads and say "masu" which is kind of a shortened version of pretty much any polite phrase, but is only used by males.
Speaking of gender differences - there are various socialized gender roles here, but seem to be more apparent among adults than what I see of my students. They tend to be more subtle, and I think vary depending on context and location, but I often see the women in the teacher's room taking care of things like answering phones and closing and opening windows and such. Then again, I've also seen women do this kind of thing in the States too, but my guess is that they are just raised to take care of such things. To be fair, the men also answer the phone in my teacher's room, I just never see them racing to the phone like the women tend to. I've talked to other ALTs though and they say its quite different in their teachers' rooms.
I was asked to play in a teachers' soccer game (against teachers from another school). I was a bit surprised to find that it was only men playing in this game, aside me... Well, I was pretty useless during the game for most of it, aside being able to run into position faster than anyone else, or jumping after the ball - my shooting skills are subpar. However, a great tragedy occurred as a result of this game, as I will soon be losing a toenail. Yes, in a wild attempt to snag a lose ball and then send it towards the goal, I ended up somehow losing a bit of balance with the momentum and inertia fighting each other and basically the ground bent back my left toe, and felt like the nail with it. Well, I was tempted to stay down, to limp off the field and relax, but the athlete in me ignored the pain, stood up and continued on, despite limping. I didn't look at the toe until I got back home, and yes it was quite blue when I saw it. I went into an utter panic, debating calling an ambulance (oh wait I don't know how to call an ambulance) and then my supervisor, but David convinced me my toe would not need amputation so I decided to take a few ibuprofen and wait till the next day.
After limping to school about 10 minutes earlier than normal (since it takes awhile) and showing the nurse my swollen blue toe, she assured me it was fine and the nail would fall out on its own. I am not sure how assuring that was... but I have been quite emotional the past few days at the parting with this toenail. It made me consider the benefits of having toenails, and what a great source of comfort they can be at times. Then I realized, sometimes you just don't value things until you lose them or see them go. So as I lose a toenail, I realized the other things in my life that I have been conflicted over losing. Much of it a sense of identity from moving to a new culture and then of course, preparing to get married, and other things that are such a part of me, like my toenail, that I feel the need to hold onto. Then I become emotional, cranky, and complain about these things, using the toenail, and sometimes the impending wedding (not MARRIAGE but WEDDING) as scapegoats.
It is thus that I continue to learn how to compromise in this place, compromising much as I mold myself into expectations at work, and compromise in other ways to fit into a lifestyle that works all right for me here. Sometimes I grow tired of compromising and simply shrug it off as I give way to my socialized habits, and then I find its my way of coping as I deal with the compromise. Fall back into natural patterns, they are comfortable, they are easy, they are familiar. How often do we do that? A chance to grow comes along, to learn, to change, and sometimes we offer the excuse of well this is me though, I am the foreigner, so why should I try to fit into this mold... or why should I change in this way that makes me so uncomfortable.
The other weekend a friend and I visited the coast and then seven famous waterfalls. We of course, had many things happen to us as normal. After getting off the train we were supposed to be on and realizing we had 20 minutes to wait till the next one, we exclaimed over a nearby soba shop. As we eagerly slurped our noodles, my friend motioned behind me, and as I turned my head, two rows of people (sitting on benches) were staring at us. Of course, when I turned to look, they immediately whipped their heads around. David said something about the fact that we can use chopsticks can amaze them sometimes.
After reaching our destination to go to the coast, we spent awhile deciphering a bus schedule and map. A lady finally came up and asked us (in English) if we needed help. She then proceeded to find us a map, and essentially walked us down to the trailhead. This was a bit of a walk from the station too... We enjoyed spending some time rock hopping and an impromptu photo shoot at the coast as the sun set, and then as we headed back up the rockface (I wish I could say something adventurous like we climbed it but really it was just a trail type thing cut out of the rock), the same woman who had led us to the trailhead appeared - apparently to make sure we had made it. She then led us to a suspension bridge and offered to take some (blurry) pictures of us.
The next day we visited Nanadaru, or Seven Waterfalls, and of course missed the bus stop after a brief debate over whether the next stop was ours. So, we got off at the following stop, and my logic thought it wiser to keep heading forward rather than back, as it was uphill and figured forward would help us figure things out easier. Well we ended up walking on the shoulder of a highway, and then down this famous spiral bridge, laughing the entire time at how dangerous it was, and me commenting on feeling like a hitchhiker (with my backpack and everything). So we eventually reached the end of the waterfall trail according to my friend, and checked out an awesome onsen that is right at the base of one of the waterfalls. (It was an outdoor, co-ed one you wear swimsuits). They had some caves too, but some strange guy was singing so it sounded like chanting and creeped us out. But it was pretty relaxing to sit in an onsen at the base of a waterfall. Amazing more like it. 
I wasn't feeling like hiking to the other waterfalls after that, but it ended up being like a walk in the park and maybe 20 minutes or something. (The pictures of all this by the way are in my web albums). To complete the fun weekend of constant fun and embarrassments, Mt. Fuji was visible for the first time that weekend, so i got to stare at it out of the train before it got dark, and it was really nice. David came to visit last weekend, and I attempted making an apple pie. Of course, finding the ingredients in Japanese can be a bit of a problem, since they aren't all in characters I understand. Had a bit of an issue finding unsalted versus salted butter. I got so frustrated before I realized I could just look at the sodium content. (I would tell David, just try the Epson paper.) We baked it in my toaster oven, and it turned out all right, though certainly not the best pie I've ever made. I realized after talking to another teacher that the flour I used was definitely not a good kind for pie - I assumed you could because of the cookies on the front. Ok then - have to find different flour for our pumpkin pie attempt next month.
The sun is now setting, and the air smells crisply fall as I have gone to sweaters now. Think its time to get some curry cooking.
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