Let's Adventuring!!!

Today IS fun. Let's start with the obvious: my wife arrives today. I am ridiculously excited after not seeing her for almost a month since I've been here. Just about 4 more hours until I see her. Okay, enough about that or else that's all I will talk about.

Today I am sitting in my Elementary School office and writing this during work. Yesterday, the Vice Principal/Head Teacher (who, by the way, is in charge- not the principal) told me to bring my swimming suit so that I could swim with the kids. I was not completely excited about it, not that I don't like to swim, but getting in the water half-dressed with a bunch of kids that are scared of talking to me (and simultaneously thinking I have rockstar status) was not an event I was relishing.

However, I answered very enthusiastically and with a smile that I woule LOVE to swim. So I did. And for some reason there were only two little kids when I went. It was right before lunch so I think the rest of the kids had left. Again, the kids were hesitant to speak at first, but then started splashing me with water and ganged up on me. I have now earned my rockstar status with two kids.

Then, later, some Junior High Girl who is on break came to the Elementary School, and while I'm not completely certain of this, I think she came just to meet me and talk with me. I'm a hero. I've been hearing that if you need to build up your self-esteem, just move to Japan and teach English to kids... although I hear the real fun starts when all the kids are there... but more on that when it happens. Anyway, it was great meeting her.

Another encouraging thing was that I met a woman today that was from Ohira and now lives in San Francisco. She went to grad school for teaching English as a second language. It was proof that my students can learn!

Finally, my favorite even of the day, and the MOST encouraging was when I called my Vice Principal (again, the head honcho) a liar. That's right, I said it, a liar. Okay, so now you're thinking... oh no, what has Luke done... alienating his coworkers... sometimes maybe he shouldn't speak up so much like he always does...

...But don't freak out. I called him that as a joke (within a funny context)... it was a big risk, since I didn't know if the humor would transfer between languages, especially to someone of higher societal rank than myself. However, with big risk often comes a big payoff. Not only did he laugh for about a minute straight, but so did the rest of the office! Now, why is this such a big deal? I have said a couple small jokes that usually they don't understand, or if they do, they smile at, but one of the hardest things to learn when studying a language is humor. Because of the cultural differences and the lack of a real understanding of the way the language really works it often comes off poorly.

If you think about it, humor is difficult even when you are speaking in your own language. Today I feel like I have broken through a brick wall. Not only that, but later in the conversation, I made another joke and they erupted even longer!

Now I feel that I am getting a grasp for the language. Today is a good day.

Now I will leave you with a Japanese kid's joke that people don't think is funny when they grow up:

Futon ga futon da.

Translation: The futon flew.

Since my last post (besides the tech one), I have been a bit busy, which is great! I hope you all enjoyed the video, and there will be more to come in the future. In fact, I just saw a REALLY scenic spot in Ohira (my village) last night. I am able to see my apartment, the seven mountains of the neighboring town of Taiwa (and then some more mountains past that), rice fields, and much of the village all from this high vantage point. I especially liked it because it was at sunset and the mountains were in profile within a sea of cherry-red sky. I was told that from that same spot grows many Cherry Blossoms in the springtime (known as Sakura in Japanese). I'll make sure you all get to see it in different seasons.

By the way, speaking with my Dad today, he didn't realize that I can see rice fields from my window and balcony which is a point worth mentioning. They're really beautiful to watch when the breeze blows over them and creates waves of green.

Also, I'd like to quick answer a couple questions that were posted about my living situation. I have a washing machine for my clothes, but you might have noticed in the video that I was drying my clothes in the kitchen. I can also do this on the balcony, but it had been raining as of late, so I was keeping them inside. Also, I forgot to show you my bedroom. It was messy anyway... haha, but anyway, I do have a REAL bed, which is not the standard to my understanding. Most people sleep on futons on the ground and roll them up for the day. This may be changing, but I'm not sure. My bed is somewhere between the size of a full and a twin in the US. Enough for two people to snuggle... which is good for the winter. They don't do insulation very well here, but I am set. I have more than most people in my job position have here. I have an air conditioner and heater, and also two space heaters- one electric and one kerosene. People love the kerosene ones here- it's much cheaper than electricity. And finally, size-wise, I have a big place. My apartment is considered family-size. I feel very lucky to be in the place I am. Oh, and yes, I do take my shoes off before I come into the apartment- and school for that matter, but I put a "clean" pair on there.

Moving on... Yes, some people have asked (some even worried) and I did feel the big earthquake that you might have heard about. It felt pretty big to me, but I guess I was in a *relatively* mild area where it struck. Although if it had been just one notch higher in our area, there would have been sirens, the TV would have had big warnings, and I would have been obligated to call my Board of Education and my JET Prefectural Advisor to let them know that I hadn't been injured. That's just to give you an idea of the scale that we're going on. Needless to say, I am fine, and so is everyone I know. I appreciate all of the concern from people about my safety.

Last Monday through Wednesday, I went to a nearby town called Tomiya for an orientation for all of the new ALTs in Miyagi. It was a fun time, and I got to meet all of the people from Group B that I hadn't seen yet, since I was part of Group A coming to Japan. There are a lot of really great people in our prefecture.

I had my first couple days at the Kindergarten here, although again, it is break-time until the 25th of this month. There was one kid there, though. I hung out with him. He was 4 years old and knew his abc's, how to count to seven in English (although he skips six), and also apple and banana. He seemed to really grasp and appreciate the idea that we speak different languages, and that that is why we have a slight communication barrier. It was still fun talking to him about the cartoons that he likes. I discovered that we both like Hayao Miyazaki. I like to think of Miyazaki as the Walt Disney of Japan, but different. For those of you who don't know who he is, he has a new movie coming out in theaters in the US that you might have seen advertised: Ponyo. I urge you to all watch it and tell me what you think! He is one of my favorite filmmakers. I can't wait to see Ponyo and it's already out on DVD here, but I will have to watch it in Japanese. Anyway, it's one of that kid's favorite movies, so I have extra incentive to see it... as if I needed any!

Yesterday there was a mini festival in my village. It was really only a festival for a section of the village. The big festival for the full village is this next weekend and I'm so excited for Lindsey to be here to see it with me! I feel like there are so many festivals all the time here and parties as well. I think it has something to do with how uptight they are all the time here. Work is work and play is play, and all work and no play makes Johnny the worker to apologize to for not working as hard as him. Don't get me wrong, I love the people and I enjoy being at work, and so do other people, but there is a difference in the way they approach their lives with regards to work that I hope to illustrate during my time here. Parties and festivals give people a chance to unwind, but then in the morning when they put on their suit, all of the previous night's goings-on are forgotten because it's work-time. This is all, I think, due to their constant view of themselves as part of a group, and not as an individual.

Which brings me to my last topic. I would like to share with you a few things to mull over until the next time I blog. Perhaps think about them as you are out doing your day to day things, and wonder how they would change the way you live if you felt differently about them.

To begin: in the Western world there is a saying, "The squeaky wheel gets the grease." In Japan there is a saying, "The nail that sticks out gets hammered down."

In the US, one of the first words that we learn to say and/or write is "I" or "me."
In Japan, a person very infrequently uses the word for "I" or "me." Instead they often favor speaking about themselves in the third person by using their name, or using a phrase "for my part" instead of "me."

In conjunction with that last thought, when learning to write, it takes until 2nd grade until they learn to write the word "family" which is a pretty complicated character, especially for a second grader. By the same token, the character for "I" or "me" is very easy to write, but children don't know or learn how to write it until they are in 6th grade.

People in the US often wonder how the Japanese can say... stick with the same company for their whole lives- and that's only one aspect of how deeply this sense of their being just a small part of a whole affects their whole lives.

Hello everyone, it's been about a week, or maybe a little over since I last posted. I wanted to let you all know that when classes start, I plan to get into a routine of posting about twice a week (or more when I feel especially inspired).

I have heard a couple mumblings about the fact that there are no dates stamped on the posts, and I'm working on it. I've been looking at the code that makes up the page and haven't figured it out yet, but if I can't, I may change the look of the blog in order to remedy the situation.

There is also an "archive" section on the right side of the page. If you want to look at an older post that I've made, you can look it up by month and the name of the blog.

At the bottom of each post, where it says the time that I posted, there is also a spot that says how many comments have been left. If you click on that, you can leave a comment yourself, if you so choose (and see what interesting things other people have written!).

If you have a google (gmail) or yahoo email service provider, please subscribe to the posts to be sure that you are notified when a new one comes out. You can do this by clicking on the "Posts RSS" tab at the top of the page.

For others that would like to subscribe, I am working on a way to get this to you as well. For now, please make sure that you all put the blog in your "Bookmarks" or "Favorites".

Thank you very much and if you have anymore questions or comments about the workings of the blog, or even about things that you would like me to comment on, please let me know.

Thank you,
Luke

For your viewing pleasure, I have created a gift for all of you to share. Please enjoy.

For those of you who haven't heard, you will be much surprised to learn that I am on the Village Hall Baseball Team. I was practically forced into it. One of the first things that my supervisor asked me when I got to Japan was, "Do you like Baseball?"- this is all in Japanese by the way. My supervisor doesn't speak a word of English.- I just responded... "ummm... I played it sometimes for fun in elementary school..." And then she informed me that I would be part of the team, just give her a few days to get it set up. Ecstatic I was... not.

I admit that being part of the baseball team is a good way to get involved in the community and to get to know people, but me... in sports? The Japanese people are obsessed with hobbies. Everyday someone asks what my hobby is, and usually they want to answer in some form of a sport. I tell them I was in Cross Country in High School, and it usually gets them off my back without needing to participate in another sport.

So, this last Tuesday was supposed to be my first practice. We got rained out... darn. There are also practices on Thursdays, so when nobody said anything all day, I thought maybe they forgot, and I got a little excited. Then I got a phone call that said someone would pick me up soon. My anxiety rose.

I got there and I was lent a glove and we started playing catch and I met a few of them and had the hobby conversation a few times. I caught the first throw. I threw back and the guy caught mine. Not too bad, I thought. Then they told me to go to second base, and my anxiety rose once again... it's showtime.

Then everybody else got in their positions and stood around while the pitcher threw some poorly placed throws to the batter. I realized that there were not enough for two teams, so we just switched out batting. I eventually batted and hit a few. In the field we would just dink around and talk about other stuff, and sometimes hobbies again. And then we were done. And then people asked if I like to drink. They said they like to drink after practice sometimes- not tonight, but probably next time.

Then it dawned on me. It wasn't so bad. I kind of liked being on the team. This wasn't high-school-kill-yourself-and-still-play-the-bench Sports, this was kind of fun! It didn't occur to me that in other countries, people actually have fun during sports instead of killing themselves to be the best. I will continue going to practice.

Changing the subject and moving on, My first day at the Elementary School was on Friday and so I met some of the Teachers and took a tour of the school. Oh, and I've had a request or two to tell more about my experiences teaching the kids, but I just wanted to let everyone know that while the Japanese have year round school, they do have some breaks, and right now is one of them. They will return on the 26th of August to classes, I think.

Continuing with the physical exertion theme, yesterday was quite an accomplishment for me. As it was my day off, I felt I had a few errands to run, and since I only have a bicycle, I readied myself for the task. I needed to buy some track pants and some slacks, both for school. The mall where I wanted to buy them was somewhere around 9.5 miles from where I live, or so I was told. I biked it... and survived! I biked back... and became the king of the world! Look out Japan, if I can bike 19 miles in a day just to get some pants, then I can survive learning your ridiculously difficult language, eat your smelliest "Nato", eat your octopus when served, and fight of a raid of your ninjas all without a tear or stain on my "Yukata." Your samurai are no match for my "Genki."

I'll admit, though, that it was a little difficult trying to figure out my pants-size in centimeters... but I did it! "Yata!!!" Also, I bought my first Manga today (a japanese-type comic book). I am determined to be able to read it from beginning to end. I think- and hope!- that it will help my Japanese ability tremendously.

In conclusion, here is a picture of a silly shirt that I bought by the silly Japanese who don't understand English.



P.S. I've dropped two or three belt-holes since moving to Japan. I'm feeling healthy as an ox... a healthy ox, anyway.

Yesterday I went with two American guys and a Japanese girl to the Sendai Tanabata Festival. Sendai has the most famous Tanabata festival in the country. Last night was only fireworks (hanabi- which means "fire flower"). I say ONLY fireworks like it was no big deal, but the thing is... when the Japanese do fireworks, the DO FIREWORKS! They had about 15,000 fireworks last night and it lasted hours, and they were GOOD! I noticed right in the middle of watching it that their slow-time fireworks were like our finales in the US. Crazy.

Evidently there are many reasons for this festival and many explanations of what it represents. There is one that I find most interesting, though I have no idea if it is most accurate. By the way, the actual festival itself is supposed to be in the 7th day of the 7th month each year, so the festival is still going on for the next few nights in Sendai.

Anyway, the story I like is this... There was once a girl who used to make cloth on the riverbank. Her father loved the cloth and so she kept working hard everyday to make more and more of it. However, she became sad because with all this time spent working on the cloth, she never had the time to meet her true love.

Seeing that she was upset, her father allowed her some extra time and quickly she met a man who raised cows on the other side of the river. They fell in love and got married. Soon, though, the husband stopped taking care of the cows and they wandered all over heaven. The girl lost interest in making the fine cloth. The father became angry. He banished them from seeing each other.

Eventually seeing that this made the girl very upset, the father took mercy on her and allowed the two to meet once a year on the 7th day of the 7th month. However, when the two first tried to meet up, they discovered there was no bridge, so a bunch of magpies created one for them, and they make a new one for them every year.

The river in this story is supposed to be the milky way, and the man and woman are two stars that are only on the same side of it once a year.

On a different note, yesterday one of the Japanese Teachers of English at my school informed me that today is the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. I feel a little awkward today, but I think that she must be the only person in my prefecture who even realizes it. The only reason that she even brought it up was because I was helping a student who was working on a speech for a recitation contest and it related to the bombing... actually she was less informing me about it than the student.

I don't know what I was expecting today... maybe the stink-eye for the whole day and then everyone wake up the next day and forget, or maybe hold a grudge because they realized that they had forgotten to hate Americans or something... In any case, they were just wild day-dreams that things would go awfully awry. People still like me, or at least seem to. It probably helps that I brought a bunch of American candy today- Starburst, Jolly Ranchers, and Red and Black Twizzlers. I heard that the Japanese hate licorice... I brought it as payback for nato, a nasty bean paste for those who are unaware. Anyway, they were all like, WOW, and I could see them wanting to spit it out... but I was able to take advantage of the Japanese sense of manners. They ate not just the first bite, but the whole piece that they had taken.

Oh, and while they liked the Jolly Ranchers and Starburst and gave a nice relief from the taste of licorice... they were practically crying from how sour they were. The Japanese have a hard time with spicy and sour things.

This is fun.

I did my first karaoke in Tokyo. It's a lot of fun. I walked around the entertainment district, Shinjuku. It's bright. I took the bullet train, or shinkansen, to meet my predecessor and supervisor in Sendai. They are great.

I was taken home. I love my home. It is a good size, layout and feel. I don't wear shoes in my apartment. There is a sink on the top of the toilet where the lid usually goes to the back of it. It even has a warmed seat for the winter. I have a Japanese style bathroom and it even has a shower. The apartment has sliding doors to the bedroom, and I even have a real bed. I feel very lucky. Most people don't get a real bed on this program, and I don't think they get a place as big as mine, and definitely not for free, like mine is.

The people of my new home and village are very kind. They are very interested to meet me. I have met the mayor and the heads of the schools and am already into my second day of work at the Junior High, although classes don't start until August 20-something. They have year round school, but there is a short summer break. This is good, because it gives me a short chance to learn a little bit about what I should be doing around here.

I still don't have a phone, but I will get an iphone as soon as a get my alien registration card. I get internet in my apartment tomorrow, which makes me ecstatic. Most of the time it takes about a month, but one of the elementary school teachers worked some magic. Right now I am using my school computer to write this post. There are mountains very near to Ohira village. They are actually in the next town, but considering that I biked two towns over the first night I received my bike (two nights ago), that is not quite so far.

Yesterday they took my photograph so that they could put me in the newspaper, I think. Most people hardly speak any English, but I am discovering that my Japanese is also much better than I previously thought. I understand more than I am able to convey, but I think even that is coming quick. I am trying to remember how to read and especially how to write. The kanji characters are what I have forgotten the most.

People are also very excited to meet Lindsey, my wife, when she arrives on the 18th of August. I guess the Junior High teachers are throwing me/us a welcome party on the 19th of August. I keep having/getting to do all these self introductions that are all in Japanese, and always in my suit, which is ridiculously hot this time of year. Lindsey will be needing to learn to do this same type of thing when she arrives and again, all in Japanese, and also in her suit. I suppose I'll probably have to wear mine as well when I bring her around for this.

Already I've been helping a couple of students with an English recitation contest that they are preparing for. I think they appreciate my comments, but seem very shy... so do all of them. I suppose it is like using Spanish in the States. Practically everyone studies it, but is afraid to use it.

I have a video of my journey and some of the things that I have been seeing and plan to put it up soon, but I must wait until I have the internet in my apartment, and then also edit it before I put it up. So, hopefully before another week has elapsed, you'll be able to experience just a little of what I've been doing.

Take care,
Luke