Sports Festival!

Yesterday was Sports Festival at Moka Nishi Junior High School, my wonderful place of employment. This can best be compared to a Field Day at a school in the US. The kids perform a bunch of random "athletic" events, and parents and friends come to watch. It was a lot of fun. I got to run in a relay race with a 1st year homeroom class (think US 7th grade). I was really excited, and the kids were happy to have me because it was me or a 60 year teacher ... I guess I appear a little more fit...

Anyhow - things were off to a great start in the relay. Each 1st year homeroom had every student plus 2 teachers run in the relay. I was on white team, 11th runner. Things started off fantastically, great baton pass, and I was sprinting - running my little heart out. Students were shouting in amazement at how fast I was (no joke). At the end of my 40 meters, I put the baton in my left hand to pass it to the right hand of the next runner, a 1st year boy. As I hand him the baton...

he trips and falls on his face. 

No joke.

Everyone thinks I ran him over.

Great.

I love being a giant and getting blamed for accidents I don't cause simply because I'm bigger than everyone in Japan.

Sweet deal. 

Anyway, we lost the relay race.

No one was actually upset with me at all. In fact, throughout the day, people continued to compliment me for how fast I ran. Ms. Tanaka, the head English teacher and also the homeroom teacher for the class I ran with, told me not to worry and reassured me that her class was not good at PE, so even if the student had received the baton correctly, they still would have lost.

     In other Sports Festival news, all of the boys did this really

cool performance that involved various human pyramids to the beat of a giant drum. I enjoyed it. I couldn't imagine 

an entire male student body at a junior high school in the US performing such a task. 

Also, they had this event called "Rawhide" 

where students had to form a "horse" and "cowboy" and use a "lasso" to knock a can off a desk. It was interesting. Enjoy the pictures.

A (national holi)day in the life

We didn't have school today. It rained all morning, but I was able to get out in the afternoon. I got on my bike and headed towards the park by the river. When I arrived at the river, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the path was freshly decorated pink paper lanterns. (illustration A)

This made me happy. The sight of two men sitting on a bench enjoying lunch in the park made me happier (so much so that when they whistled at me, it went almost completely unnoticed. The only thought it evoked was, "Hm, they must be Brazilian." Japanese men don't whistle at women, and Brazilians are the largest minority population in Moka.) As I rode my bike along the path, I tried to determine the spot from which my camera could best capture the scene. I finally chose a spot, stopping just after I passed two little old Japanese ladies chatting. While I snapped a few pictures, their conversation drew to a close, sending one little oba-san in my direction. Much to my delight, she not only acknowledged my existence, she greeted me and lingered a little, giving me an opportunity to strike up conversation, which I quickly seized in my best Japanese (read "complete butchering of the language"). I pointed to the lantern and said precisely "This, what?" She explained to me that the lanterns were hung for "hanami," the cherry blossom viewing party that would begin as soon as the flowers sprang forth from their buds. She estimated it would be in about 6 days. She told me that the lanterns all represented different business and organizations in the community, and that when the flowers began to bloom and the festival kicked off, there would be food stalls in the park, as well. She said all of this in Japanese. :-). Then she asked a few questions about me, where I'm from, what I do in Moka, if I'm married. When I answered no, she said my parents must have cried when I left. I admitted that my parents miss me a great deal, and she encouraged me to press on. Then she smiled, laughed, shook her head at my terrible Japanese, and continued on her walk. It was beautiful. I continued on my bike ride, which lead to crossing her path once more, and she smiled and said "Ja ne! Bye bye!"

Then I rode my bike to the shrine, hoping to find more pretty lanterns. I did not find lanterns, but I did find beautiful flowers. In my limited knowledge, I ascertain that they are cherry blossoms. However, this is my "hajimete" (first time) hanami experience. So maybe they're plum blossoms, who knows? Either way, the photos are quite nice. (exhibit B)

I must admit that until today, I really couldn't grasp what could be so wonderful about cherry blossoms that every town in Japan would have a "flower viewing festival" each year, where people put on their very expensive, traditional Japanese attire and walk along lantern-lit paths, surrounded by thousands of other people doing the exact same thing.  I mean really? They're just flowers.

But I must also admit that today, as I walked under one of the trees, on a carpet of fallen pedals, and the wind blew just right causing a few more pedals to fall around me, there was something magical about it. And, as I said before, for all I know, these were just plum blossoms, and the cherry blossoms will be even more majestic.

The shrine is a really peaceful place. Sometimes I feel like maybe it should feel oppressive or uninviting to visit a shrine, but there was not even a trace of this at the Moka shrine today. I could have stayed for hours admiring the flowers, enjoying the weather, and taking in the peacefulness, but I was a little apprehensive about the clouds rolling in. So I continued on.

I took a little path I saw near the entrance of the shrine, and, man, did I find some interesting things. First, there were the pretty things. (See images below)

Just after crossing the train tracks, I noticed a fenced in area with a few people walking  around, looking around, almost like they observing some sort of exhibit. Two of the people walked up to the fence, smiling from ear to ear, and said hello to me, in English. It was incredibly un-Japanese. It made me feel like I was the thing on display. It confused me, but I liked it. I always like friendly strangers.

I ended up taking a path that circled around this strange park, and was startled to turn a corner and see a donkey, an ostrich, and an entire rabbit farm. Just beyond these, I saw signs for a squirrel farm. Adding to the oddness, for the entirety of my park-circling, there was this music box-esque melody coming from speakers that I couldn't see. It was really strange. I felt like I was in a horror movie. I didn't stick around.

On my bike ride home, I decided to stop at Fukudaya, the upscale everything store that has the best selection of produce and a bakery. 

As I park my bike in front of the store, I hear someone call out my name. I look up to see about 6 of my 1st year students sitting in McDonalds directly across from me. Two more are running up to me, and they invite me inside.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel a secret sense of victory when the surrounding Japanese people, who usually despise me for existing on their island or stare straight through me, were forced to acknowledge that their own kind desire to be in my presence, so much so that they will come running up to me to invite me inside.

The other side of the coin is that all but one of my girls were wearing their school warm ups, AND loads of makeup. Junior high school students aren't allowed to wear makeup, but here they are, wearing it with their school uniforms, loud and proud. Here are my girls:

I sat and chatted with them for a little, relying mostly on the one Peruvian girl, who typically speaks to me in Spanish, to translate. 

Then I continued on to Fukudaya, where I discovered that I did not really want to pay twice as much for the things I could buy across the street for half the price. So I bought only the things I couldn't get at the cheaper store.

As I walked over to the cheaper grocery store, I passed the tiny little Thai store, where the first stranger in Moka to ever talk to me works. I said hello to him, and we chatted for a few minutes. I told him, in my still terrible Japanese, that my parents are coming to Japan soon, and we talked about that for awhile. It was an awkward conversation. I was grasping for any Japanese words I knew, but he is a kind man, and he held up the conversation, until finally I felt like more of a burden than a conversationalist.

I went on to the cheap store, and fell pray to the onigiri, a very important part of Japanese life. These delicious treats are essentially rice balls stuffed with various fillings and wrapped in seaweed. And they're surprisingly delicious. The problem I sometimes run into is that I can't read the Japanese writing that tells me what will be inside. So today, I bought three, completely clueless as to what I might find inside. It was an adventure. Then I headed home to eat my three tasty treats. However, my eyes were bigger than my stomach, and I was full after one. The one I chose was filled with a sweet soy-flavored substance that was most likely a type of seaweed. Admittedly, when I caught my first glimpse of the filling, I was alarmed, but, as it turns out, it was scrumptious. Take a look. 

The remaining onigiri will be enjoyed at a later time. Yum!

And that, my friends, is a national holiday in the life of yours truly.

Cheers.

sushi

I eat a lot of sushi here. I will try to post some photos of my "life as usual" because if I do indeed stay another year, I know these things won't strike me as interesting, and I'll forget to record them for you.

Sushi here is far less complex than sushi in the states. Sushi rolls have one type of fish and perhaps one other ingredient (like onions or lettuce). There aren't caterpillar, volcano or rainbow rolls. There's mostly just fish and rice. I like it, but I won't pretend I don't love the States' version of sushi.

This is one of my third year classes. They are the same age as US freshman. I have three of these classes, and I love them!

power trips

Today I instigated a 3rd year boy getting scolded. He seems to be at that age when hormones speak louder than the filter in his head, and he tends to make inappropriate comments that I usually ignore. Today, I didn't have patience. It was the last period of the day on a Friday (my busiest day of the week), and I was tired. So when he came up to me with a guilty look on his face and made a comment in Japanese that he refused to translate, I grabbed his arm and dragged him into his homeroom, where his homeroom teacher happens to be an English teacher. I prompted him to repeat his comment, and he refused. The teacher tried to pry it out of him, but he wouldn't say a word.

Later the teacher told me that she had finally got him to repeat it.

He was trying to tell me that he wanted to buy me chocolate on Valentine's Day, but he was afraid to tell me in English because he was worried about what I would think of him.

I'm officially a jerk on a power trip.

The end.

the most bizarre day thus far

Today was really weird. So many strange things happened in one day. To start with, this weekend I cut off about 5 inches of my hair and died it brown. It's a bit of a change, especially in the eyes of my Japanese students and co-workers who quite frequently admire my natural blonde hair. Today was my first day at my junior high school with my new hairstyle. I thought, this could go one of two ways: A) Japanese people don't like to single people out (or be singled out) so they may not say anything at all B) They say "Sugoi!" (the Japanese equivalent of wow) and then "Kawaiii (cute). The first teacher I ran into ...

asked if I had gotten my hair straightened...? Interesting. And this was the question of the day. Nevermind the 5 inch difference in length and 5 shade difference in color. My hair was apparently only remarkable in that it was straight. It was neither a Japanese, avoid-undesirable-attention-response nor an acknowledge-the-obvious-change-response. I promise I'm not just being vain or hoping people will notice me. I'm genuinely confused by this reaction.

Continuing on - today is a special day in Japan. On Feb. 3rd, Japanese people throw beans on their front porch and say, "Devil out, good in!" I'm not Japanese, nor are my AET neighbors, so we had no bean-throwing before work, and I ceased to think about this tradition. Until school lunch. Everyday our school lunch is served with white rice that comes in a little silver tin with a lid (except the days we have "western" lunch and get bread). So today, when I saw that school lunch was the smelly fish that I never eat, I reached for my white rice because I knew it would fill my hungry belly, and I wouldn't have to eat the fish. As I took off the lid to my rice, I was startled. The rice inside was a shade of purple! What?! My coworker sitting next to me informed me that it was special food for Feb. 3rd. Lunch also came with a snack-size package of "mame" (ma-meh, beans) with a picture of a person throwing the beans at a fleeing devil. Takano-sensei, my favorite PE teacher who sits across from me, informed me that I need to eat 22 beans today because I am 22 years old. Interesting...

Moving along to cleaning time after lunch. As I'm cleaning in my usual spot, I hear a punk third year (US 9th grade) boy, who speaks little English, singing an obscure song from "Mama, Mia!" in English. What? Why is this 15 year old Japanese class clown who doesn't know English singing "Money, Money, Money!"?

The adventure continues as the whole school moves to the gym for rehearsal of the 2nd grade (US 8th grade) "coming of age ceremony" that will take place tomorrow. Now you all know that this is Japan, so I can't wear my outdoor shoes inside. But did you also know that I can't wear my inside shoes in the gym? I must have a separate pair of "gym shoes" which are not to be worn in any other location. Today, however, they have covered the gym floor with special mats so that inside shoes may now be worn into the gym. Now we're in the gym, wearing our inside shoes, standing on mats that cover the entire gym floor. 

The ceremony rehearsal is very formal. We must clap as the second year students enter (all 105 of them), and take their seats in the front of the gym. Then each class of second graders goes on stage, select students say some Japanese into the microphone, and I have a very vague idea of what they're saying. Something about their goals. As each student approaches the mic, she/he must bow. She/he must bow again when stepping away from the mic. There is a whole lot of bowing happening. Or at least I thought it was a lot. 

The next part of the ceremony involves several teachers being called on stage to make announcements. Luckily, each announcement is about 2 seconds long. The unlucky part is that each time a teacher is called up to stage we are sternly prompted over the microphone to Stand! Bow! Sit! Next teacher called up, repeat. And repeat. And repeat. And repeat. And repeat. And --- I've never bowed so much in my life! I don't even know what I'm bowing for. Sometimes, I'm not even sure if I'm supposed to be bowing. I just know that the voice commanding me to Stand! Bow! Sit! sounds intimidating, and I don't want to disobey! At one point, I jumped and almost made it fully to my feet when I realized that only the students were standing. Who knows how many times this happened without me realizing it...

Okay, so finally, I am done being barked at in Japanese to Stand! Bow! Sit! and the teachers are summoned for a meeting in the front of the gym. The students remain in their seats while the teachers discuss the rehearsal and what needs to be perfected by tomorrow. 

I'm not using the term perfected lightly. The teachers discuss how the students do not have their fingers curled under and their hands are not close enough to their hips while seated. Then they discuss how the Stand! Bow! Sit! routine does not look unified. It does not look like one person. (Really? Gee, who would've guessed that 316 junior high school students don't move entirely in unison?) Also, the students are shuffling their feet too much when they walk in. Additionally, when the students bow as they approach and step away from the mic, they are not standing in a straight line with the next person approaching or leaving the mic. 

Many of these things will be rehearsed later today in homeroom classes and again tomorrow before the actual ceremony. The bowing, however, cannot wait. It must be improved. Now. So the students have to practice Stand! Bow! Sit!-ing in unison. Each time it looks like 316 students instead of one mass body of computer-programmed robots, they must start again. They finally get it right (and how dare they take so long!), and I breathe a sigh of relief, because I think  the rehearsal is over.

Wrong.

Now they must rehearse the school song again because they are not singing loud enough. And if they are wearing hospital masks because they are sick (that's what the Japanese do when they're sick), they must take them off so they can sing louder. (This seems illogical, they are sick. Why would we make them sing loudly? Oh dear, me and my logic are lost in Japan...) So, as the students sing, their homeroom teachers scold them. The resulting sound is 12 angry Japanese people shouting over 316 students singing. At last, the song is loud enough.

Now are we done?

No. Now the students must be lectured about who knows what. I stop trying to pick up key words and piece things together. I don't care what they're doing wrong now. That's when I hear it - a bucket of water splashing down onto the precious gym floor mats. Wait... there are no buckets of water in here. What was that sound? Vomit! And it doesn't stop. It just keeps coming. Somewhere in this gym filled with 316 junior high school students, someone is puking on the floor. Two teachers go running towards the sound and start dragging a second year student towards the door. He has vomit all over his school blazer, and he's still puking. The teachers are literally dragging him out as he continues to vomit, leaving a trail to the door. Luckily, the time it took for me to jump from "bucket of water" to "vomit" in my head was a split-second, so I got as far away from the spectacle as I could! Teacher or not - I don't do vomit. Plus I can play the foreigner card, I'm often deemed incapable of carrying out teacherly tasks, so I take advantage.

Now we must be done. Everything has been rehearsed. Teachers have discussed. Students have been lectured. And the smell of puke is about to start wafting. 

But no. The lecturing is not done. There is more to be said. And it MUST be said here and now. We cannot leave the gym. The students who are sitting with puke at their feet cannot leave. A few teachers who are not directly involved in the present lectures run for toilet paper, and out of the corner of my eye, I catch one of my cute little Japanese English teachers covering her mouth with one hand and wiping up vomit with the other. This is just too bizarre. Why are we still here? What is going on?

FINALLY the 3rd and 1st year students are dismissed. I breathe a sigh of relief (but not too deep because then I would be forced to deeply inhale the smell of barf), but almost choke on it when I realize that the 2nd year students are not being dismissed. (Remember that the student who puked was a second year student, and all second year students are sitting together, which means their chairs are in the vomit.) To top it all off, the students are now being fiercely scolded. It escalates to the point of one teacher grabbing a student by the shirt collar and jerking him to his feet while screaming in his face. 

At this point, I've had enough. Enough of the smell. Enough of the scolding. Enough of the corporal punishment. Enough of the ridiculous rigidness of this entire rehearsal that prioritizes structure and routine over relieving a group of students who have been breathing in vomit-filled air for far too long.

The entire event, this entire day, in fact, is bizarre.

And absurd.

things worth mentioning

These are just a few things. parts of my daily life that I have become accustomed to and no longer think twice about, but it occurred to me that they might be of interest to people who aren't living in Japan.

school lunch always involves rice, some sort of soup and some sort of salad, usually some version of seaweed salad. everyday. along with creamy milk in a glass bottle that is later cleaned and reused.

there are no lunch ladies or cafeterias. students serve their fellow students. before doing so, they don white chef-esque uniforms and students line up to grab trays and be served by their classmates in their classrooms.

after lunch the whole school brushes their teeth. there are trough-style sinks in the hallways and students stand around brushing their teeth and talking to one another in garbled, mouth-full-of-toothpaste Japanese. teachers brush their teeth in the privacy of the teachers' room, but, rest assured, the super-sanitary and aesthetically-pleasing talking while brushing takes place there, as well.

speaking of a teachers room. they have one. teachers do not have their own classrooms. students have classrooms, and teachers must go to the different classrooms and teach the students associated with each one. the grades are divided into classes, and these students stay together in their classroom for the academic year.

at the end of the day all teachers and students tie bandanas on their heads and line up in two rows, facing one another in the hallways. music plays over the intercom, and we bow to one another while saying, in unison, "onegaishimasu" or please, and then begin cleaning. students are assigned to different areas all around school and everyday the whole school is cleaned, without a single janitor. during cleaning time, the same poor quality karaoke style instrumental songs play - including "Cheer Up Sleepy Jean." after cleaning, we line up and bow once more, while saying "gokurosamadeshita" or I appreciate your efforts.

all of my students must wear uniforms. the boys wear plaid pants with a white shirt, a plaid tie, and a blue jacket (see photo above). the girls wear the same blue jacket, also over a white shirt, but with a boy tie and a knee-length plaid skirt. all students wear a plastic nameplate with their names written in kanji symbols pinned on the left side of their jacket. under their uniforms, all students wear their school sweats - boys wear bright blue (perhaps aquamarine?) gym shorts with white shirts, and girls wear sea green gym shorts with white shirts. After PE class, students are allowed to stay in their sweats. They also have pull-over sweatshirts and parachute-style sweat pants which they can wear for PE in the winter.

we don't wear outside shoes inside. students have white canvas slip-ons to wear indoors. the rubber soles are either green, yellow or blue, depending on what grade the students are in. teachers can wear whatever indoor shoes they choose. there are also slippers available for visitors.

in the school gym, everyone must wear special shoes. students have special gym shoes, all matching of course. everyone else can use the slippers that are kept on a shelf outside the gym entrance.

students cannot wear makeup, decorative hair ties, jewelry or nail polish. they also cannot have their hair hanging down.

this is a brief sketch of middle school in japan. enjoy.