Beware of Japanized-English-words. These are basically Japanese words or phrases that technically come straight from English but that don't correspond to any word or phrase we would normally use. For example, what we call air conditioning is what the Japanese call エアコン (eakon), or basically "aircon." When I'm talking with English-speaking friends, we use the Japanese version, saying something like "thank god my apartment has aircon." Can you imagine one of us saying that back in the states? We'd get stares. Here are a few other examples:
Paper towels-->キチンペーパー(kichin pe-pa-), "kitchen paper."
Gas Station-->ガソリンスタンド (gasorin sutando), "gasoline stand."
Stroller-->ベビーカー(bebi-ka-), "baby car."
Monday, August 6, 2012
Rain
It would be pouring my first day driving to and from work by myself. And 0% of the cars had their headlights on.
(I completed the drive both ways crash-free but chickened out on getting gas. Baby steps.)
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Takasaki Matsuri
Takasaki is a city. Like a city-city. It reminds me of Nagasaki in a small way. And not just because they both end in "saki." Which, by the way, means "small peninsula." Nagasaki is "long small peninsula" (accurate description,) and Takasaki is "high small peninsula" (not accurate at all.) Go figure.
It wasn't until I was taking the train back home, watching the rolling countryside and listening to Nujabes (the only music I listen to on those trains,) that the memory of why I'm here kicked in again. Why I actually wanted to do this for so long. It's quite easy to forget. It's quite easy to romanticize the past and future and stew in the present. It's easy for me to let the day-by-day hassles and worries overcome the fact that I am, at this moment, a living breathing opportunity.
Typical 日本 through a smudged train window.
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Car Speed
So when I drove (for the first time in Japan) today, the speed limits were 30, 40 or 50 km/hour, depending on what street I was on. I remember going 50 and it felt fast because the roads are so narrow. However the speed limit meant nothing to me because I didn't know how to put it into miles. I went home and did the math. In order to achieve the 70-75 mph speed limit I drove daily in California, I'd have to go 110-120 km per hour here. And the fastest speed limit is 50.
#inakalife #narrowroads #that's why it takes 40 minutes to drive 11 km
River Walk
I wish there were public trashcans. But I get why there aren't.
Compared to last year, I care less about what people think about me here. Last year I was like...oh god, they're staring at me and noticing my gaijin-ness...they're probably wondering what I'm doing here and why I'm in their country, taking pictures of "normal" things like they're special, and not knowing the social codes and not speaking fluent Japanese. I've seen it in reverse in the states. People getting treated with suspicion and contempt because they aren't "American." It's inhuman. The difference is, here in Japan they are still friendly, kind, and helpful on the outside, and keep their opinions to themselves. This year I feel like saying, accept it people, I'm a member of this community now and that's that. You can think what you want but that isn't going to change the fact that I'm here now, teaching English to YOUR kids. Oh, and thank you for letting me experience your beautiful country.
I've got to say though, doing "normal" things takes up so much more mental energy here. Everything is new. Today I drove to school (just for practice), I drove to Daiso/Torisen, Besia, and the other Daiso/Torisen, and then went home, and it felt like a full day's work. Just driving and doing errands. Because it's so new and a little intimidating to me.
There is more of a stigma attached to being a foreigner in this town compared to Nagasaki because at least Nagasaki attracted tourists and private English teachers. (Although I can count on less than one hand the number of times I ever saw another white person there, it's still a big city.) Shibukawa, as far as I can gather so far, is a collection of neighborhoods, some "suburban," some not so suburban. I live in a valley with no garden patches or rice fields or unpaved roads, but I will work up a hill in an area that does. Because my work neighborhood and my living neighborhood are different, I don't know if I'll ever experience the common ALT phenomenon known as "running into your students at the store" or "having your neighbors bring you produce." Both ALTs who live in my complex told me that they've never spoken to their neighbors. WELL I DID, TODAY. This middle-aged overweight Japanese man, I saw him coming up the stairs, and I said, "konnichiwa." But that doesn't mean he'll bring me vegetables.
I would enjoy the familial closeness of being placed in a smaller community, but I would be more isolated and experience much more inconvenience than here. On my walk tonight I walked to the train station and bought my tickets for tomorrow, easily, in about 20 minutes. Then I walked along the river and looked at the bridge and marshy banks. Shibukawa is not as beautiful as Nagasaki but it is still a nice place.
Compared to last year, I care less about what people think about me here. Last year I was like...oh god, they're staring at me and noticing my gaijin-ness...they're probably wondering what I'm doing here and why I'm in their country, taking pictures of "normal" things like they're special, and not knowing the social codes and not speaking fluent Japanese. I've seen it in reverse in the states. People getting treated with suspicion and contempt because they aren't "American." It's inhuman. The difference is, here in Japan they are still friendly, kind, and helpful on the outside, and keep their opinions to themselves. This year I feel like saying, accept it people, I'm a member of this community now and that's that. You can think what you want but that isn't going to change the fact that I'm here now, teaching English to YOUR kids. Oh, and thank you for letting me experience your beautiful country.
I've got to say though, doing "normal" things takes up so much more mental energy here. Everything is new. Today I drove to school (just for practice), I drove to Daiso/Torisen, Besia, and the other Daiso/Torisen, and then went home, and it felt like a full day's work. Just driving and doing errands. Because it's so new and a little intimidating to me.
There is more of a stigma attached to being a foreigner in this town compared to Nagasaki because at least Nagasaki attracted tourists and private English teachers. (Although I can count on less than one hand the number of times I ever saw another white person there, it's still a big city.) Shibukawa, as far as I can gather so far, is a collection of neighborhoods, some "suburban," some not so suburban. I live in a valley with no garden patches or rice fields or unpaved roads, but I will work up a hill in an area that does. Because my work neighborhood and my living neighborhood are different, I don't know if I'll ever experience the common ALT phenomenon known as "running into your students at the store" or "having your neighbors bring you produce." Both ALTs who live in my complex told me that they've never spoken to their neighbors. WELL I DID, TODAY. This middle-aged overweight Japanese man, I saw him coming up the stairs, and I said, "konnichiwa." But that doesn't mean he'll bring me vegetables.
I would enjoy the familial closeness of being placed in a smaller community, but I would be more isolated and experience much more inconvenience than here. On my walk tonight I walked to the train station and bought my tickets for tomorrow, easily, in about 20 minutes. Then I walked along the river and looked at the bridge and marshy banks. Shibukawa is not as beautiful as Nagasaki but it is still a nice place.
First Days
After a whirlwind 5-6 days I finally have internet!
Tokyo Orientation was July 29-31 at the Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku. It was amazing to see all the JETs from all the different countries including parts of America, Ireland, the UK, Australia, Jamaica, and even France. I spoke French with the 3 French JETs (who are also fluent in English!) There were over a thousand of us, and that's only half, since the rest will come in group B this Wednesday and group C later on. Every day brought meetings, workshops, and ceremonies--general preparation for the life we're about to live and the students we're about to teach. The first night, I went out with some Gunma (my prefecture) people to Karaoke in Shinjuku. I love Karaoke and it was fun bonding with the new people :) (Only to get ripped apart from them days later as we went out to our respective cities.) The second night I was able to meet a group of my friends in Shinjuku where we went out to eat and walk around. I'm so glad I got to reunite with them and I'm surprised that I almost didn't even want it to happen because it was too much work coordinating it without a cell phone. But it ended up being fine! I love Tokyo but I think living there would be overwhelming. I love public transportation, convenience, and an abundance of things to do, but the slower pace of the suburbs suits me fine as well.
View from my hotel room
The Opening Ceremony was very formal.
Shinjuku at night
My fwends.
On Wednesday we took the 2-hour bus ride into Gunma where we all met our Contracting Organizations at the government office in the capital, Maebashi. Having been mostly indoors all day in Tokyo, the humid heat was stifling. It's hot, but I prefer it to winter's cold. After a few nervous introductions, my supervisors, along with my two neighbor-fellow-ALTs Chris and Laura, took me into my-town-that-doesn't-quite-feel-mine-yet of Shibukawa. I'm so accustomed to the first thing I see being the train station, but since we've been driving EVERYWHERE, I still haven't even see it yet. We signed some papers at city hall and at the Board of Education, where I met some more people. Then we went to my apartment so I could settle in and unpack. I tried so hard not to use the air conditioning, but the heat is so crazy intense that I broke down. I try to use it in short intervals, and not while I'm asleep, though I usually wake up in the night from the heat. I went to Daiso (my favorite store!) and the grocery store that night to get supplies, then some of the Shibukawa new & old ALTs went to dinner at a ramen place where they apparently go frequently. My first real Japanese dinner!
View from my front door area
My place.
Yeahhh, that bedspread came with the room. -__-
Thursday was another day of errands, trying-and-failing to get a cell phone because I don't have alien registration card yet, getting a bank account, signing more papers, and paying more fees. In Japan, bureaucracy is king. So much red tape to get through everything. Friday we visited my schools for the first time. They are small and some parts are a little dilapidated, but cute. I am very excited to be there, although the system is pretty foreign to me and nothing like an American elementary or middle school. This time was my crowning glory of awkward Japanese conversations and introductions. Most normal people who learn languages end up developing much higher listening than speaking skills, but because I'm weird, my speaking skills are higher than most other peoples', while my listening skills are worse. But when Japanese people hear my speaking, they assume I'm pro at listening, which I'm not. Also, I got offered a 2nd ice cream which I refused to be polite, and a split second later I remember that it's the polite thing to accept the offer, not refuse it. Whoops. But anyway, they gave me a cabbage. Gunma is famous for cabbage. Friday night I was lucky enough to go to Numata Matsuri (festival) with Helen, a departing ALT who has been here 5 years. Not only that but we went with her Japanese friends so I got to meet some real Shibukawa genuine Japanese people for the first time. :) The matsuri was really great: big dashi (...like floats?) going through the streets, dozens of people carrying wooden mikoshi, along with every type of street food you can imagine. I met some more of the gaijin (foreigner) community and watched all the different events. Summer is matsuri season!
Whee!
A dashi
A mikoshi.
Today I drove for the first time! It's not thaat scary except for you always have to be on guard to not accidentally drive on the right or turn wrong, and the roads are way narrower, and I still have to get used to the dimensions of my car. The turn signal is on the right, and I keep pawing at a phantom one on the left, as well as pawing at a phantom shift on the right (it's now on the left.) If you zone out and go on autopilot for a split second you'll end up in the wrong lane (which I almost did a couple times but caught myself.) I gotta go to know my town and the rules of the road. Also, if I want to stay two years, I've got to get a Japanese license, which means taking this crazy strict road test (most people fail at least 3 times, some people 6 or even 10 times.) Yikes!
Now I'm gonna go for a walk and try to scope out the station. I live 10min away.
I've gotten most of the housewares I need for my apartment, but still need some other things like an iron and some other storage things. But I think I am gonna wait until my paycheck...16 more days!
I'm gonna go to Takasaki Matsuri tomorrow and *hopefully* meet up with my friends who live there!
This is not like Nagasaki at all except for that people speak Japanese and the signs are in Japanese and stuff.
Enough word vomit for today. Future entries will not be like this.
Tokyo Orientation was July 29-31 at the Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku. It was amazing to see all the JETs from all the different countries including parts of America, Ireland, the UK, Australia, Jamaica, and even France. I spoke French with the 3 French JETs (who are also fluent in English!) There were over a thousand of us, and that's only half, since the rest will come in group B this Wednesday and group C later on. Every day brought meetings, workshops, and ceremonies--general preparation for the life we're about to live and the students we're about to teach. The first night, I went out with some Gunma (my prefecture) people to Karaoke in Shinjuku. I love Karaoke and it was fun bonding with the new people :) (Only to get ripped apart from them days later as we went out to our respective cities.) The second night I was able to meet a group of my friends in Shinjuku where we went out to eat and walk around. I'm so glad I got to reunite with them and I'm surprised that I almost didn't even want it to happen because it was too much work coordinating it without a cell phone. But it ended up being fine! I love Tokyo but I think living there would be overwhelming. I love public transportation, convenience, and an abundance of things to do, but the slower pace of the suburbs suits me fine as well.
View from my hotel room
The Opening Ceremony was very formal.
Shinjuku at night
My fwends.
On Wednesday we took the 2-hour bus ride into Gunma where we all met our Contracting Organizations at the government office in the capital, Maebashi. Having been mostly indoors all day in Tokyo, the humid heat was stifling. It's hot, but I prefer it to winter's cold. After a few nervous introductions, my supervisors, along with my two neighbor-fellow-ALTs Chris and Laura, took me into my-town-that-doesn't-quite-feel-mine-yet of Shibukawa. I'm so accustomed to the first thing I see being the train station, but since we've been driving EVERYWHERE, I still haven't even see it yet. We signed some papers at city hall and at the Board of Education, where I met some more people. Then we went to my apartment so I could settle in and unpack. I tried so hard not to use the air conditioning, but the heat is so crazy intense that I broke down. I try to use it in short intervals, and not while I'm asleep, though I usually wake up in the night from the heat. I went to Daiso (my favorite store!) and the grocery store that night to get supplies, then some of the Shibukawa new & old ALTs went to dinner at a ramen place where they apparently go frequently. My first real Japanese dinner!
View from my front door area
My place.
Yeahhh, that bedspread came with the room. -__-
Thursday was another day of errands, trying-and-failing to get a cell phone because I don't have alien registration card yet, getting a bank account, signing more papers, and paying more fees. In Japan, bureaucracy is king. So much red tape to get through everything. Friday we visited my schools for the first time. They are small and some parts are a little dilapidated, but cute. I am very excited to be there, although the system is pretty foreign to me and nothing like an American elementary or middle school. This time was my crowning glory of awkward Japanese conversations and introductions. Most normal people who learn languages end up developing much higher listening than speaking skills, but because I'm weird, my speaking skills are higher than most other peoples', while my listening skills are worse. But when Japanese people hear my speaking, they assume I'm pro at listening, which I'm not. Also, I got offered a 2nd ice cream which I refused to be polite, and a split second later I remember that it's the polite thing to accept the offer, not refuse it. Whoops. But anyway, they gave me a cabbage. Gunma is famous for cabbage. Friday night I was lucky enough to go to Numata Matsuri (festival) with Helen, a departing ALT who has been here 5 years. Not only that but we went with her Japanese friends so I got to meet some real Shibukawa genuine Japanese people for the first time. :) The matsuri was really great: big dashi (...like floats?) going through the streets, dozens of people carrying wooden mikoshi, along with every type of street food you can imagine. I met some more of the gaijin (foreigner) community and watched all the different events. Summer is matsuri season!
Whee!
A dashi
A mikoshi.
Today I drove for the first time! It's not thaat scary except for you always have to be on guard to not accidentally drive on the right or turn wrong, and the roads are way narrower, and I still have to get used to the dimensions of my car. The turn signal is on the right, and I keep pawing at a phantom one on the left, as well as pawing at a phantom shift on the right (it's now on the left.) If you zone out and go on autopilot for a split second you'll end up in the wrong lane (which I almost did a couple times but caught myself.) I gotta go to know my town and the rules of the road. Also, if I want to stay two years, I've got to get a Japanese license, which means taking this crazy strict road test (most people fail at least 3 times, some people 6 or even 10 times.) Yikes!
Now I'm gonna go for a walk and try to scope out the station. I live 10min away.
I've gotten most of the housewares I need for my apartment, but still need some other things like an iron and some other storage things. But I think I am gonna wait until my paycheck...16 more days!
I'm gonna go to Takasaki Matsuri tomorrow and *hopefully* meet up with my friends who live there!
This is not like Nagasaki at all except for that people speak Japanese and the signs are in Japanese and stuff.
Enough word vomit for today. Future entries will not be like this.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Japan Part II: The Adventure Begins
I've avoided writing the obligatory pre-experience blog entry for a long time because I didn't know what to say and still don't.
Almost a year after coming back from Japan last summer, after a nine-month application and interview process, after waiting excruciatingly long periods of time to find out if I got an interview, if I got in, and where I was placed, after two weeks of constant errand-running, preparing, and packing, after saying see-you-later to all my friends and family, I'm finally leaving in just over 15 hours to go to Japan for a full year. I will carve out a life as an English teacher (more like teacher's assistant) at one middle school and one elementary school in my suburban community in Gunma Prefecture. I'll have many things I've never had before: a salary, a smartphone, my own apartment. As I sit alone in my hotel room near LAX, it feels weird and surreal. Like tomorrow mama will come pick me up and I'll just stay here in CA like always. It doesn't feel like, as of tomorrow, my life will become totally different from what I've known. One chapter in my life will finally come to a close, and another will abruptly begin. The comfort zone ends here.
While I was doing my student-teaching this winter and spring, I fantasized about living in Japan as an escape from the daily terrors that besieged me in the classroom. Just wail 'til you're in Japan, I said. Life will be simple and carefree and you'll walk to the forest and meditate and revel in the stillness. I used Japan as a way to romanticize the future and tolerate the present. But now, Japan feels anything but simple. I cringe at the future complications that await: dealing in yen, driving on the left, managing finances, navigating language barriers, traveling in snow. But I know that all these inconveniences will be meager in comparison to the wealth of positive life experience I will gain. Maybe it won't be meditation-in-the-forest, but it will be constantly exciting and enriching.
In the grand scheme of life, a year is nothing. But as the JET alumni endlessly reiterate, it's a year that will change you and the way you think about things for the rest of your life. I'm inspired by the advice given to us by an alum sitting at our dinner table: "Whatever you think it's going to be, it's not. Forget about what you think you know and come in with an open mind, and you will learn so much. So much."
Almost a year after coming back from Japan last summer, after a nine-month application and interview process, after waiting excruciatingly long periods of time to find out if I got an interview, if I got in, and where I was placed, after two weeks of constant errand-running, preparing, and packing, after saying see-you-later to all my friends and family, I'm finally leaving in just over 15 hours to go to Japan for a full year. I will carve out a life as an English teacher (more like teacher's assistant) at one middle school and one elementary school in my suburban community in Gunma Prefecture. I'll have many things I've never had before: a salary, a smartphone, my own apartment. As I sit alone in my hotel room near LAX, it feels weird and surreal. Like tomorrow mama will come pick me up and I'll just stay here in CA like always. It doesn't feel like, as of tomorrow, my life will become totally different from what I've known. One chapter in my life will finally come to a close, and another will abruptly begin. The comfort zone ends here.
While I was doing my student-teaching this winter and spring, I fantasized about living in Japan as an escape from the daily terrors that besieged me in the classroom. Just wail 'til you're in Japan, I said. Life will be simple and carefree and you'll walk to the forest and meditate and revel in the stillness. I used Japan as a way to romanticize the future and tolerate the present. But now, Japan feels anything but simple. I cringe at the future complications that await: dealing in yen, driving on the left, managing finances, navigating language barriers, traveling in snow. But I know that all these inconveniences will be meager in comparison to the wealth of positive life experience I will gain. Maybe it won't be meditation-in-the-forest, but it will be constantly exciting and enriching.
In the grand scheme of life, a year is nothing. But as the JET alumni endlessly reiterate, it's a year that will change you and the way you think about things for the rest of your life. I'm inspired by the advice given to us by an alum sitting at our dinner table: "Whatever you think it's going to be, it's not. Forget about what you think you know and come in with an open mind, and you will learn so much. So much."
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