一日中泣きました。 I cried the whole day.

Today was the 'sayonara' party for the 3rd years at Honjo JHS! In celebration of their three years at middle school, we played dodge ball and had ourselves a picnic lunch (in the meeting room).

The first years put on a quiz for everyone! They switched clothes and unbuttoned buttons and moved around hairstyles and the rest of us had to guess what was different! The second years presented 'teacher trivia' and asked questions such as;

What is Kyoto-sensei's favourite colour? (Vice Principal)
How old is Rachel-sensei?
What is Mr. Nishimura's hobby?

Finally there was a drawing contest involving all the grades! The student council announced something that the contestants had to draw. Such as, "the world", "Amanohashidate", "Doraemon", "Yoshi", and a few more that I can't remember. The students would display their works and the teachers (and Rachel) decided whose was the best!

The downer of the day was that my JTE's grandfather passed away and she had to leave school to go home. Not only is it a bummer to have someone in your family die, but she also had to miss a day that she'd really worked hard for and looked forward to all week! It seemed really unfair to me.

The last event of the day was in the music room. The whole school (easily 65 people) sat down and watched a slide show of pictures throughout the school years of the current 3rd year students. It began with pictures of them as first years and showed all the activities they'd taken part of. It was a really cute presentation! Afterwards, it was time for the teachers to deliver their personal messages to each individual student. There are only nine third year students (even I can name them all off with ease), so it was very personal.

Each teacher chose a student they were close to and wrote them something to the effect of, "You've become a leader/You've shown such prowess through the years./I remember when you first came to school..." and so on. I was again bummed that Tsuji-sensei wasn't around to read her passage to Kenta. She teaches the two slow-learner students for homeroom (which is mainly kanji, as I understand it). She and Kenta are really close and it was a shame she wasn't there. Anyway, all it took was a single crack in the music teacher's voice and all stoicness in the room was gone. The rest of the female teachers began to crack and tear up when they read out their passages. This led to the female students beginning to tear up and sniffle. In five minutes there wasn't a man, woman or child in that room who wasn't crying. It was one of the most emotional times I've ever had, I don't even know how to explain why. How can something feel like too much when it doesn't seem like enough? I don't even speak Japanese well enough to understand what's being said, but I understand enough, I suppose. For me, my breaking point was looking across the room and seeing Hayato, the captain of the baseball team in tears. Not just tears in his eyes, but steaming down his cheeks. He wasn't holding back, he was done. All the boys were crying -- and I couldn't stop after that. These kids bike in the ice cold winter for MILES around! They are up from dawn until dusk working their asses off at school, sports, and on their studies -- not to mention household chores! I couldn't believe the amount of emotion in that room, it was almost unbearable. After the teachers sang a song to the students, it was time for the 3rd years to deliver their messages to the first and second year students. The kids got it together (bleary eyed as they were) and said encouraging words of advise to the other students. Then the second to last girl, Sayaka, the QUIETEST girl in the school began to read hers and just BURST into tears. Hysterical sobs. She couldn't finish for a good two minutes. It was awkward, and everyone else started to tear up again. Anyway, we got through it.

Fifteen minutes later I was walking to my car and couldn't hold back any longer. I started crying and I didn't stop for a good two hours. I couldn't even tell you what I was crying about.

To take my mind off whatever it was that was making me feel more and more helpless and uncomfortable, I took a drive around the high cliffs which border the coast of the Sea of Japan. Thank God for the sea, that's all I have to say about that.

Kenta! He is the disabled learner of his grade -- but he got into HS! Wahoo!

Weekend with my Japanese Homies

When asked what my weekend plans were, I replied, "I am eating. With Japanese girls."

Essentially that was precisely what I did this past Saturday and Sunday.

On Saturday, I braved my slight cold (read: I had no ability to breathe) to meet Yumi and Scott and the Honeycomb coffee shop. This is a coffee shop with cute cakes, derricious coffee beverages, and some attractive waitresses! If only I swung that way. But I'm not into waitresses.

Yumi, I should add, wanted to go back there about five times during the day. I blame LIZ for this, as she introduced me to it awhile back and I have been addicted ever since. The addiction has now been passed on.

After coffee, the three of us went to meet Miss Yuuki Shibayama for some Sushi Ro------- in Oyima. The sushi was good, but my sickness prevented me from eating a disgusting amount, as I usually do. Alas.

We ditched Scott afterwards and Yuuki drove us to a Jersey Cow dairy farm in Kumihama! They had baby cows in one pen and HUUUUUGE Jersey dairy cows in the barn. They were HUGE! I don't know why they seemed so big... either Jersey Cows are humongous or I haven't ever actually seen a cow before and I forgot. Anyway, the point is we tried salt ice cream and it was gross. So we revived our taste buds by eating blueberry yogurt ice cream was what soooo good.

After a quick glimpse of the Kumihama vegetable market and a very detailed discussion on sweet potatoes, we went back to the Mineyama area, stalked Liz from place to place, and bought me a shiny maroon bicycle! It's being delivered on Monday after school (in theory). Hooray transportation that isn't my car! Not that I have anywhere in biking distance I can go to, but damnit it's the principle of the thing.

After wandering around Mine and looking at ugly ugly shoes, we went to Seiryuu (a Japanese tavern by the train station). Yumi and Yuuki's stomachs were bottomless pits. I was thoroughly showed up by their crazy hunger.

The next day was meant to be taking Kirby-kun to the vet. However, the friendly vet said that he didn't actually know anything about ferrets and recommended a farther away different ferret-affiliated veterinarian. We did not go all the way to Fukuichiyama, however. Instead, we dropped Kirby off in Ine and drove even FARTHER and close to (in?) Fukui Prefecture. The goal, you see, was a road trip to Obama. Obama, through the ridiculousness of the Japanese kanji system, means "small beach". The name could easily be pronounced "kohama", but fortunately for my obsession with novelty, it is pronounced like our dreamy possibly presidential candidate. You know, the black one.

Obama has two mermaid statues, a public restroom, and a train station. We found no statues of Barak Obama, no ridiculous Obama-shaped cakes, and no shirts with Engrish pronouncing undying fidelity to the strange, American politician. It was sad. We DID however, find an excellent onsen! Yumi and I got nekkid and enjoyed the seaweed, vitamin, and freakishly hot baths in the onsen, drank lots of water, and hopped back in the car!

I should add that on the way to Obama (small beach), we passed Nagahama (long beach), Takahama (high beach), and Oohama (big beach).

We met Marina and Scotty at Karachi (the Indian/Pakistani curry shop in Maizuru). Quick fact about Maizuru, it means, "dancing stork". YAY! 舞鶴. Curry, as always, was magnificent.

Then it was moooore driving! Dropped Yumi off, went home, and realized that my glasses are still so broken and I have to wear contacts until I figure out how to procure more eye wear. Crap.

England thoughts

England and Belgium were good.
I won't write much about them because technically this is my Japan blog and also I don't think anyone would find it that interesting!

But seeing my family was really really really good. I felt refreshed after coming back to Ine.

Getting there and back was definitely a long journey. Getting from my house to England took about 36 hours (driving, train, bus, train, airplane, train) and coming back was about 28 hours (train, plane, train, bullet train, train, drive).

Fortunately the jet-lag didn't get the better of me, I've been busy at work ever since, and I haven't been as sick of Japan as I was just before leaving. Thank goodness for that especially because man oh man I was ready to get out of Asia.

I was culture shocked in Europe though. London, especially. People there are extremely rude or nonchalant. Spikey, I'd say. It's very different after the kindness and humanity you get from everyone in Japan (even at the post office!) But I suppose city people can't be bothered to act like human beings anywhere you go. Maybe small town life has spoiled me! People in Belgium were much kinder and had a really great sense of humour! It was cold but a really good trip, overall.

I am excited for when my family will visit Japan.

I am not excited for a lot of people to leave in July. I don't' think life after that will be very good for some time. But that's not for seven or so more months. It's best to enjoy people while they're still here and willing to visit my house in outer space!

The First Week of Classes

The First Week of Classes

This was my first week of classes and it was mighty strange. My first day all I did was introduce myself to the students, stumble through a poorly written speech that basically had to take up 3-5 minutes (ugh) and then sat around in the teacher's room all day being bored. Tuesday was essentially the same, only the kids were less quiet so I stumbled more skillfully through my speech.

Wednesday and Thursday I got to help out in class, which was fun! I have better communication with one of the JTEs than the other, so... the classes were different. Unfortunately I am going to have to just get my butt in gear and learn Japanese all quick-like so I can talk to her more easily.

Anyway junior high school kids are so weird. Some of them obviously have the puberty thing together, some of them don't. I've only had one "bad" student so far... he just refuses to participate (I think b/c he doesn't understand) and he puts his head down on his desk or chews on his nails and blah blah blah. But whether he learns or not, I don't really care. He might as well do something with his time though, I figure.

Eating lunch is really amazing in Japanese schools. Ours are too small to have cafeterias, so we have a kitchen and then the students all grab plates, food, trays, milk, chopsticks, straws, etc etc etc and bring them up to their classrooms. Then they all help serve lunch. Some kids will serve the soup or the salad or the main dish and they all place them on the desks. It's fascinating to watch. I suppose because so little was expected of me in school when I was a wee lass, I never knew kids of this age were so capable of doing things in a neat and orderly manner! Much less without throwing stuff at each other. Everyone sits down and when the last person is ready, one student comes to the front of the class and puts their hands together, and everyone follows suit. "Itadakimasu!!!" Or..."bon appetit" as I equate it to. It basically means "we will eat!" but very very very politely. Then everyone eats quickly and in complete silence. In about 30 seconds all the boys are done. They say "shitsureshimaaassuuuuu" and run out the door. Of course, they pile their dirty dishes and recycle their milk boxes in all the right places. And in a blink, they have vanished. The girls sit and finish their lunches more slowly, as is the female way (in Japan anyway). They clean up their things and then altogether they and any surrounding boys students will carry the dishes and finished containers down to the kitchen and put them away in a neat and orderly fashion.

Astonishing. I have never in my life seen anything more amazing than a Japanese junior high school lunch, and all of the protocol.

Today (Friday) I got to hang out with the elementary schoolers! And they were just unbelievably adorable. we played games b/c I sort of rand out of things to do so I made them up as I went along. I made the first years and second years play duck duck goose!!!! EEEEEE they picked it up so quickly! "dakku dakku guusu!" soooooo cute. I nearly exploded. I think the teachers agreed. I even managed to persuade some of the boys to pick some of the girls, and a lot of the girls outran the boys!!!

Then I got to eat lunch with the first graders, who are alllll girls and one boy!!! (poor Ren). I think because of this, the 2nd years joined us. I was asked lots of questions "do they use chopsticks in America?" "How old are you?" "Are you married?" NO. "Why not?" "Because I hate boys" and I asked one of the first years if HE was married, since he was sooo interested. And milk came out his nose. I think that means success. I can almost eat as much and as quickly as the first grade girls. Ugh, I suck at eating lunch Japanese-style. How the heck are they so small and beautiful if all they do is shovel food in their mouths? I guess its the whole running around for HOURS thing. They seriously train these kids from a young age like SOLDIERS. When I came into school this morning they were running laps. Teachers too. Probably, all of the six year olds could outrun me. Even the one with the sprained ankle.

For the lesson I showed them the world map (where Japan was in the middle and I was confused as to why America was so small in comparison to Canada ... Heeeyyyyy isn't America the biggest country in the world??? What gives?????" So I explained where I was from in ENGLISH and made them point out Japan on the map and where Ine was on the map. Then I talked about the family living in Turkey but they weren't FROM Turkey and the kids all love my cheapo ring with the evil eeeyyyeeee. And my super cheap Target watch. I have no idea why they like it, its falling apart and its ghastly.

I had to give class, aside from my intro, almost entirely in Japanese. To do this, I copied everything my Japanese teacher ever said (Maru-sensei). Such as

• Haaaaii, kiite kudasaiiii - listen please!
• Jyaaa-aa..... "sooooo...." or "welllll"
• and my favorite "san hai". - I have no idea what it means.

When Maru-sensei wanted us to say something as a class, she'd say "san HAI" and we'd all say things in unison. So I tried it and IT WORKED. I was so shocked!!!! So thank you Maru-sensei for being number one teacher.

Anyway today was far too cute. And they drew pictures of themselves and wrote their names and then I died. Or went to the BOE, uuuugh. I hate the BOE. Aside from drinking tea all day I don't do much else. I have also come to the consensus that girls are just naturally well behaved. WHY IS THAT???? All the girls were quiet and did what they were supposed to and the boys ran around screaming and punching each other and asking me what fruits I liked. I don't understand. But they are all 100% adorable.

Moving to Ine-town

Moving to Ine-Town

I left Tokyo yesterday with my Kyoto prefecture group. We walked to the Shinjyuku train station where we caught the train to Tokyo station. There are a lot of Japanese people in train stations. At Tokyo Station, we bought bento lunches and couldn’t resist the delicious looking pastries sold all around the area. I got some pudding! This would not be worth mentioning, except that my little pudding was wrapped in a box with two packs of ice so it would keep, a little spoon, and then put inside a bag. It was a frivolous waste of paper, and so it could only be Japanese. From Tokyo, we hopped the shinkansen, bullet train. It was sooo comfortable! We got to eat our lunches and look out the window at the countryside and industrial areas, and we even got a pretty good view of Fuji-san (see the photo!). I unfortunately sat next to a person who wanted to chat the whole time... but dammit, I was reading the last Harry Potter book and things were getting CRAZY.

We arrived at Kyoto station. The first thing we did after departing the train was take a turn into a shopping mall. I was more and more confused as we climbed floor after floor on the escalator. On the 9th floor, we arrived at our Contracting Officers' office! We were filed into a small room filled with Japanese people in chairs. I had no idea what was going on, but I felt like we had been tricked into being sold as gaijin slaves. Finally, someone Japanese said something long and formal in Japanese and everyone stood out of their chairs and came towards us. A tiny lady in her late 40’s and a tiny man in his early 50's greeted me. Nishihara-san and Umezaki-san, respectively. Of course, I didn't know this until three hours later. The two took my bags and me to the car (Japan’s re-imagining of the station wagon). From there, we began our long drive to Ine-cho, where I will be living for the next 365 days or more.

The drive was immediately awkward. Umezaki-san and Nishihara-san speak about as much English together as I spoke Japanese two years ago (essentially none). My Japanese communication abilities are passable at best "Me are Rachel. New English to teaching, enjoyment!" However, the fact that I’ve never spoken to a Japanese person outside of a classroom paired with the backwater characteristics of the Tango Peninsula dialect [Tango-ben] made it almost completely impossible to understand what was being said. Facts were somehow exchanged, although they were almost entirely incorrect. The first; I am from Seattle. I don’t know how on earth this came across. I mentioned that I was from Los Angeles and my parents lived in Turkey. I told them I had eaten horsemeat and that I enjoyed swimming. At one point they argued about Washington DC and Washington-shyu (state). I mentioned that they were different, and that my grandparents lived in Seattle. From this, I must have somehow communicated *oh by the way i live in Seattle and am from there somehow* Though, I'm sure it's all my fault. At least I know what presents to get them from the US - Ichiro Suzuki merchandise. They asked me a million questions about him, and had I seen him. I had!

They took me to a department store (Mipple!) where I was encouraged to buy a small bowl, a pair of chopsticks (hashi) and some toilet paper (in retrospect, an excellent idea). I also made sure to buy soap and shampoo. Afterwards, they wanted me to buy breakfast. Well, I don’t know what I want for breakfast and I am too tired to translate every box of random noodles. I broke down and bought a box of frosties, because cereal is western and after that they left me alone.

Before they took me to my house, I had the amazing pleasure of going to INE KYANPU (camp). I met a bunch of kids and teachers, all of them adorable. One in particular kept running up to me and saying "Harro!" and running away. I finally cornered her with two friends and asked her name. None of them would talk. I know they understand me. So I asked in Japanese if they had forgotten. Then they ran away. I love kids. I also had some real-deal meat off the BBQ and yakisoba along with delicious tea. They gave me too much though and kept trying to give me more. I don’t think I’m actually going to be losing weight here... I’ll probably be a sumo by the end of a year. After a half hour, we said our goodbyes and left back towards Ine.

They brought me to my house. It is the most amazing house I have ever lived in. It is meticulously clean, smells amazing and everything is perfect. I have a big tub, a toilet, a living room, and kitchen with dining nook, two bedrooms and a huge study. I get to sleep on a futon, I have paper sliding doors, the neighbours are very friendly so far, and I have lots of random Japanese switches that I can’t begin to understand. It’s wonderful. It’s across from a farm, and up on a little green hill. Everything is green.

The downside to living in a muggy seaside village on a hill? Probably the amount of Jurassic-sized insects that are dying to get inside my home. I only saw a handful, namely giant ants, around the area. A big moth also landed on my window to say hi. It couldn’t get in, but anyone who knows me and moths... (THEY CAN'T SEE WHERE THEY'RE GOING AND IT'S TERRIFYING!)

I didn’t unpack or do anything when I was finally left alone. I took a bath, spread out my futon (after wondering what exactly makes a futon a "bed") and went to sleep early. The sounds were really strange; loooots of animals live out there. It made me a little nervous, but the futon was too squishy for me to keep awake worrying about it. I was asleep in no time.