A Hodge-Podge of Thoughts

Tea Ceremony Class: Last weekend Mary took me to her co-worker’s tea ceremony class (She doesn't teach it, she attends it). It was one of the happiest moments I've felt since I came to Japan. I've been looking for a place to practice, and now I finally have a place to go! The down side is that it is a bit early on Saturday mornings so I won’t be able to go very often. Anyway, it’s a woman’s house. She has a very nice tea room and very nice tea equipment. It was Mary’s first time experiencing the tea ceremony. She seemed pretty interested in it. I got to share some of my knowledge with her. I practiced usucha demae (thin tea ceremony) which was so much fun! I got to watch several other ceremonies, drink lots of tea, and eat lots of okashi (Japanese sweets). It was a great feeling to know that I shared the same interest and had some of the same abilities as these Japanese people. I’m so used to feeling like an outsider that it was such a relief to feel like I fit in for a bit…even if I couldn't understand a lot of what they were saying. On a somewhat related note, last Friday night I had my Japanese class that I often go to. This time Mary came along. I spoke with a man that I had previously spoken to. Our conversation was really difficult. He is an older man and is interested in businesses and companies…so he talked to me a lot about that. I couldn't always understand what he was saying, but we worked through a lot of things and I could definitely understand the main points. It was exhausting, but it felt really good to practice something I was not familiar with. I’m so used to talking about myself in Japanese and other simple matters that I felt like I accomplished something by talking about something more complicated. Oh, and after the tea class on Saturday morning, Mary and I got lunch in an area I've never been to before. We went to this place that had meat in every meal! At first I was like “Oh, crap!” but I found a chicken meal and it turned out to be really delicious!! It’s fun to compare my school life with Mary’s.

Halloween Dance Party: What can I say? It was another Saturday night of going out…except it involved all the aspects of a perfect Saturday night. 1) Good friends 2) Mexican food 3) Dancing with a bit of booze involved 3) Holiday festivity (i.e. costumes) 4) Making the last train in order to sleep peacefully 5) and no hangover. I had soooo much fun dancing! I feel so happy when I go dancing with friends…especially when my kind of music is playing! I wish every weekend could be this much fun! On a side note: despite the fact that it was a Halloween Party, I never got the Halloween feeling that I get when I’m at home which was kind of disappointing. On Halloween day in Japan, it was actually pretty uneventful. I tried to bring Halloween into the school. I made a Halloween bulletin board, I had the students decorate paper pumpkins, I incorporated Halloween into the lesson a bit, and I even wore cat ears in class. However, nothing can compare to the weeks leading up to Halloween where you go to a pumpkin patch, carve pumpkins, eat apple/pumpkin food, go to haunted houses, and then actual go out on Halloween night to either cause mischief or go trick or treating. I missed seeing kids in costumes running around on the streets, and something tells me that Thanksgiving will be equally as uneventful…good thing I’m going home for Christmas!!!

Halloween dance party!

Halloween bulletin board

Some of my students creations. Haha!

Shopping/Sweets Paradise: On Sunday, I met some friends downtown to go shopping (I needed a few things for work). Two of them are Japanese, but they speak amazing English, and the other is one of my JET friends. The two Japanese girls introduced my other friend and I to a place called Sweets Paradise. It’s a buffet. There is some normal food, but the buffet mostly consists of many different kinds of cake. It was really good haha! We did purikura after and then hit up a few stores. There’s a Japanese store I like that actually has pants in my size. It’s called G.U. Otherwise I've done my shopping at H&M. It was a fun time!

Girl time.

Food/Cooking: Well, I finally stopped eating school lunch. It was very convenient because you didn't have to prepare your own food the night before, it was super cheap, and it was hot which was nice, but I could just not tolerate eating meat anymore. Of course, if there was a lot of meat (for example, a hotdog), I wouldn't eat it, but usually the meat was cut up really small in a soup or something so I just choked it down. I hated it. Sometimes the food was good, but it was all really high in calories. The milk was so thick, it disgusted me. Now I am paying more to make my own lunches, and I can’t eat with the students (I’m the only person in the entire school who doesn't eat the school lunch) because it's bad if the students see me with different food because they will want it. However, I am so happy because I am eating vegetarian, low calories, and I’m still allowed to eat with the handicap class which is really fun! I've been experimenting a little more with cooking at home. There are times when I really want something that is not sold in Japan, but I am finding that I can make some things from scratch such as tortillas. The other night I made falafel and it was amazing!!!

The next two topics are a bit heavier:

The Difference between American and Japanese Schools: There is so way I can begin nor do I want to take the time to describe every difference because there are just so many, but I will talk about what I have been thinking about lately. First, it is getting colder. The rules with the school uniforms are very strict. The girls must wear skirts all year long. I thought, “Ok, well they will probably wear some thick tights or something so it’s ok,” but girls kept coming to school with only socks, and it was getting uncomfortably cold to wear just a skirt. I assumed that tights weren't allowed or something which seemed cruel. So, next thing I know, girls are bringing blankets to class to cover their legs. It seemed to be a bit much, so I asked my teacher and she said that the students are allowed to wear tights but the school rule states that they must still wear socks over their tights. To me, I didn’t see that to be any big deal, but the girls apparently think it’s really ugly so they refuse and just bring huge blankets to class instead…yup. The next difference which I think I’ve mentioned is the lack of discipline. There is literally no discipline system and the kids can do whatever they want and not get in trouble. In fact, many teachers seem to pity the students who misbehave…it’s so weird. Kids will literally sleep through the entire class and nothing is done. Kids can just get up and leave and there is no consequence. One student curled up in a ball on the floor and slept. At least the teacher made two students pick him up and put him in the hallway…I saw one kid bring a box cutter to school and pull it out in class…no big deal. Kids choke each other, punch each other, boys hit girls, girls hit boys, they put each other in sleeper holds, drag each other across the floor, and the worst part is that you can’t tell if they are serious or just playing. Yikes! The principal or vice principal has no part in the discipline of the students. Another difference is that the school is either hot of freezing because they don’t use the air conditioning or heat much. The corridors are the worst. I have to wear a jacket when walking between classes. Other random things: There are meetings multiple times a day between teachers and they are always so formal and serious. We have morning meeting every day! There is one teachers’ office. Basically all the teachers just live in it unless they are teaching a class. Desks are faced together and organized by what grade the teachers teach. For whatever reason, I sit with the 2^nd grade teachers (2^nd grade of junior high that is). The school years are different here. Kindergarten is separate. Elementary is 1^st-6^th grade. Junior high is 7^th-9^th (but we say 1^st-3^rd), and high school is another 3 years I believe, and it is optional. You must take tests to get into high school and you choose which ones you want to apply to, much like college. Then, they also have college in Japan which I believe is usually four years. In junior high, the main focus is passing entrance exams for high school. Another difference is the lack of technology. It varies from school to school, but overall, the level of technology is nowhere near as advanced as it is in America. Many people believe that Japan is so high-tech. Yes, they have a lot of little odds and ends that are high tech, but in daily life (in people’s homes and schools), it seems like they are like 30 years behind. Kids can’t have any food or anything to drink in class…and neither can teachers. In the beginning of the year, it was so hot, and I was sweating and thirsty, and I took a bottle of water out of my bag and had a sip. The teacher was so shocked and told me that it wasn't allowed. Then I was so shocked haha! It’s like the really bad things are allowed such as bringing knives to school, but the silly things aren't like having water in class. One kid threw a spoon off the balcony and the teachers acted like it was the worst thing that ever happened in the history of the school! It’s just so different!

The Japanese Feeling: Lastly, one more thing I wanted to mention. Before I ever came to Japan, I had a certain image of it. I’m sure it was similar to the images other people have of it that have never been there. Here are some words to describe the feeling I had: samurai, temples/shrines, foreign and mysterious, geisha, traditional Japanese art such as calligraphy, tea ceremony, and flower arranging, extreme politeness, and anime. Of course, some of these images were shattered (not necessarily for better or worse) when I came to Japan last summer, but many of them stayed intact. Mainly because I was exploring the main sights of Japan such as temples, shrines, and so on. Now that I have been living in Japan for three months now, it’s beginning to feel different. It feels very ordinary. Like Japan is just a regular place that isn't as foreign or exciting as I once thought. Perhaps it’s because I haven’t traveled to many cultural sights since I've gotten here…thank goodness I’m going to Hiroshima for the first time this coming weekend!! It’s just that I’m a little worried because all the things that drew me to Japan in the first place seem to be a face of Japan that isn't really as true as I thought. Yes, I can search Japan and find places that feel “Japanese” and I can do things (like practice tea ceremony) that give me the feeling of Japan that I’m looking for, but on a day to day basis, I'm becoming very accustomed to life in Japan except for maybe the language barrier. I’m sure that wherever I travel in the future, it’ll be different than I imagined; in some ways good and some ways bad. I am still interested in Japan, and even if the culture isn't as predominate as I’d like it to be in daily life, it’s still there. I’m just finding that I have to go looking for it. Or perhaps it’s always been there, and I’m just getting used to it. Now that I think of it, I don’t get excited anymore when I see a woman on the train wearing a kimono…it’s all just interesting to think about, and I’m sure that once I am back in the U.S., Japan will seem “Japan-y” again haha.

A Bit More to Add: Since I have been writing this long post over the course of a week, another weekend has passed so I can cover it quickly because I didn't do too much. Friday I went to the mall in Kyobashi and shopped alone. It felt good to have a little alone time. I tried the seasonal teriyaki chicken sandwich at McDonalds, and it was good. It’s just after Halloween and it's like Japan became Christmas-ized which is a little weird. Stores are playing Christmas music and everyone is selling Christmas stuff. I understand seeing as they don’t have Thanksgiving, but I feel a little sad that Thanksgiving will pass without anything happening. The day after Thanksgiving has always been the day where the Christmas stuff comes out, and I will stay true to that in my own apartment. :P Saturday I met Satsuki (and her husband for the first time!). It was fun! We went to Rinku Town (where I had that language seminar by the ocean and airport in the beginning). We shopped around the outlet mall and went to an onsen. The weather was beautiful!! I saw a wonderful sunset. That night, Kris and I went to the bar he took me to one of my first weeks here. I love it there. It’s the perfect bar atmosphere and the drinks are so good. I had a really good time hanging out with him, but I still don’t know how our friendship is progressing. I feel like I have many friends and acquaintances in Japan, but there isn't anyone that I can call a best friend yet. I suppose those things take time seeing as all my best friends at home I've known for years. I guess maybe I am just a really enthusiastic friend and want to be very close with people, but that is somewhat uncommon. At least I can Skype with my friends back home!! Now I will end this very long post….to be continued.

A beautiful sunset in Rinku Town.