Vocabulary Notes:
Hanga - Japanese woodcut print
Matcha - high end powdered green tea
Mochi - Sticky, glutenous rice dessert
Showing posts with label japanese friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label japanese friends. Show all posts
I could write about last weekend or I could...
Tags:
cut and paste,
hanga,
japanese friends
Vocabulary Notes:
Hanga - Japanese woodcut print
Matcha - high end powdered green tea
Mochi - Sticky, glutenous rice dessert
cast of characters
There's this one old man who lives in my town who sometimes visits my school to teach the art club. He's a relatively reknowned (at least locally) Hanga artist, that is, Japanese wood-cut printmaking. Even though i usually cannot attend his instructional sessions at my school (he comes on the same day as my Japanese class downtown) I go whenever possible and he seemed to take a liking to me almost immediately.
He likes to call me "Doctor Michael" because I told him was thinking about going to MD or PhD programs at some point in the future. Basically everyone in town knows him and his craft. To illustrate this point, I was once going to his house for a party, and the hand-drawn map he drew me indicated that his house was on the complete opposite side of town. So i was wandering around the entirely wrong neighborhood and asked a random shop keeper if they knew Sano Sensei's house. As far as i could tell they were like "THE Sano sensei?" and I was like yeah! and they proceeded to draw me a real map to his house. Yes, this is that kind of community.
On another occasion I was walking around with Sano sensei going into random stores and barber shops where he knows people. Basically everywhere we went had something hanging on the wall that he would point to and say "I made that." He also showed me architectural drafts he's done that have been built into actual homes in the city.
I went to a new Years Party he was hosting with some former students. They are great. They apparently get together frequently and their group name is "The Weasels" Which is a play on one of the member's names, i think, which i guess sounds like the Japanese word for weasel.
He's 84, and let me assure you, I can't understand a WORD of what he says. Actually I have gotten to the point where i can usually understand Japanese people, believe it or not, but old people simply speak a different language. It's hard to demonstrate without showing you an imitation in person. basically just try to imagine tipsy 60 year old dudes hanging out in dive bars in America. It's basically the equivalent of that. He even pronounces the most common words with complete different, old-fashioned sounds. So I talk to this guy, and I understand about 10% of what he says, but nevertheless he seems to LOVE me. And is always trying to explain something simple to me about Japan. I look confused but it's only because I have no idea what words he's using.
So yeah, Local hero. Cool grandfather character in my Japanese life.
He likes to call me "Doctor Michael" because I told him was thinking about going to MD or PhD programs at some point in the future. Basically everyone in town knows him and his craft. To illustrate this point, I was once going to his house for a party, and the hand-drawn map he drew me indicated that his house was on the complete opposite side of town. So i was wandering around the entirely wrong neighborhood and asked a random shop keeper if they knew Sano Sensei's house. As far as i could tell they were like "THE Sano sensei?" and I was like yeah! and they proceeded to draw me a real map to his house. Yes, this is that kind of community.
On another occasion I was walking around with Sano sensei going into random stores and barber shops where he knows people. Basically everywhere we went had something hanging on the wall that he would point to and say "I made that." He also showed me architectural drafts he's done that have been built into actual homes in the city.
I went to a new Years Party he was hosting with some former students. They are great. They apparently get together frequently and their group name is "The Weasels" Which is a play on one of the member's names, i think, which i guess sounds like the Japanese word for weasel.
He's 84, and let me assure you, I can't understand a WORD of what he says. Actually I have gotten to the point where i can usually understand Japanese people, believe it or not, but old people simply speak a different language. It's hard to demonstrate without showing you an imitation in person. basically just try to imagine tipsy 60 year old dudes hanging out in dive bars in America. It's basically the equivalent of that. He even pronounces the most common words with complete different, old-fashioned sounds. So I talk to this guy, and I understand about 10% of what he says, but nevertheless he seems to LOVE me. And is always trying to explain something simple to me about Japan. I look confused but it's only because I have no idea what words he's using.
So yeah, Local hero. Cool grandfather character in my Japanese life.
Wednesday night christmas (in english!)
Tags:
culture,
japanese friends
So a few weeks ago I met the acquaintance of one, Endo san. My boss stopped by my desk one afternoon and asked if I had a few minutes to spare. I gladly agreed and then he was ushering me down the hall to the principal's office. I had been late to work that morning for the first time, which is like serious badness in Japan, and was 5 minutes late for one of my classes (which is bad news anywhere) so i wasn't sure if i was going to get fired or what. But we entered the principals office and inside was a high profile meeting in progress between my boss, and my boss's boss, and this elderly man on an oxygen breather who introduced himself as Mr. Endo in flawless English.
Endo san is a famous graduate of my high school. He went on to be a very successful businessman here in town with his family-owned business, which produces freshwater nori. He is also excellent at English and still seems to be studying even in his old age. He loves it. He apparently just wanted to meet me because i am the new ALT at the school, so we chatted for a few minutes, he instructed me to do a good job teaching the students, and he mentioned that he has some friends who meet occasionally to practice speaking english and celebrate western holidays. He encouraged me to come meet them sometime. We exchanged phone numbers.
Later that week he called me and invited me to a christmas party with his English group. That was tonight. He instructed me to bring a gift of less than $10 and told me he'd pick me up outside my apartment. I met him outside 10 minutes early (i'm getting used to everyone being 10 minutes early) and we drove off to an Italian restaurant i had never been to before, where his friends were waiting.
It was amazing.
There were about 5 of them, and after the usual rounds of being told i look like a movie star, and have stylish glasses, etc (this kind of flattery is somehow just not getting old), they each introduced themselves formally in english. This is a big formality in Japan. I'm always doing self introductions and explaining awkwardly in Japanese that i'm 22 years old and that my family consists of 6 people, etc. It's all a standard set of facts, mostly demographical and about family and hobbies. It was a nice change to hear Japanese people struggle in exactly the same way I do to describe their families and hobbies in English. In good faith, i tried to introduce myself in Japanese anyway. Then we began to eat and talk. Spaghtetti, salad, more spaghetti, pizza, more spaghetti, neverending beer, followed by whiskey, followed by cake, followed by coffee and tea. Wow.
Over dinner i answered everyone's questions and we talked a lot about Japanese and American culture, as well as their personal histories and jobs. It was so strange to be having the whole discussion mainly in English. Something i have gotten less and less used to. They asked me the usual gauntlet of "why did you come to Japan" "What are your plans for the future" "What did you study in college" "Do you have a girlfriend" "Do you eat _____?" "Can you drink ______?" and so on. We even talked about Blood Type personality typing (which is really popular in Japan) and why Japan is so into it
One of the guys was a physical therapist, one of the women was the wife of the owner of the restaurant. The conversation and food and hooch kept flowing and they really, really love english. Actually most of them were over 50 and have been studying english since long before i was born.
They used to do a study group with a former ALT, but she has subsequently left, so i might pick up the slack and start doing conversation classes for them. but theyre really advanced. one thing I taught them was the difference between "nerd" "dork" and "geek." The Physical Therapist guy looked up "dork" in his electronic dictionary and insisted that it meant penis. "Penis. Penis. Penis." he said. This led to a discussion of the etymology of Dork and Geek. (you can look it up)
We exchanged gifts by numbering each gift and then pulling numbers out of a hat. I recieved a tiny stuffed cat with gigantic eyes. It's just shy of adorable, weighing in somewhere between cute and creepy. I brought a baseball hat from Aamerica that says "Chicago" on it. It went to the restaurant owner's wife. After dinner they refused to let me pay, which is almost getting not surprising. Every time i am invited out to dinner where i meet new friends for the first time, I am not allowed to pay and told "next time." Then, i drove home with the physical therapist and his wife. I found out that he plays guitar and loves rock music. His favorite bands are Chicago and Journey. Awesome.
So yeah. Fun night. Sorry this is so rambling. I am writing it all in one go, and in a disorganized fashion, and i can't be bothered to check it for mistakes or stupidity (my god i'm so tired lately). I'm off to sort gifts for my trip home and catch some z's.
Hope you've enjoyed, dear reader!
Endo san is a famous graduate of my high school. He went on to be a very successful businessman here in town with his family-owned business, which produces freshwater nori. He is also excellent at English and still seems to be studying even in his old age. He loves it. He apparently just wanted to meet me because i am the new ALT at the school, so we chatted for a few minutes, he instructed me to do a good job teaching the students, and he mentioned that he has some friends who meet occasionally to practice speaking english and celebrate western holidays. He encouraged me to come meet them sometime. We exchanged phone numbers.
Later that week he called me and invited me to a christmas party with his English group. That was tonight. He instructed me to bring a gift of less than $10 and told me he'd pick me up outside my apartment. I met him outside 10 minutes early (i'm getting used to everyone being 10 minutes early) and we drove off to an Italian restaurant i had never been to before, where his friends were waiting.
It was amazing.
There were about 5 of them, and after the usual rounds of being told i look like a movie star, and have stylish glasses, etc (this kind of flattery is somehow just not getting old), they each introduced themselves formally in english. This is a big formality in Japan. I'm always doing self introductions and explaining awkwardly in Japanese that i'm 22 years old and that my family consists of 6 people, etc. It's all a standard set of facts, mostly demographical and about family and hobbies. It was a nice change to hear Japanese people struggle in exactly the same way I do to describe their families and hobbies in English. In good faith, i tried to introduce myself in Japanese anyway. Then we began to eat and talk. Spaghtetti, salad, more spaghetti, pizza, more spaghetti, neverending beer, followed by whiskey, followed by cake, followed by coffee and tea. Wow.
Over dinner i answered everyone's questions and we talked a lot about Japanese and American culture, as well as their personal histories and jobs. It was so strange to be having the whole discussion mainly in English. Something i have gotten less and less used to. They asked me the usual gauntlet of "why did you come to Japan" "What are your plans for the future" "What did you study in college" "Do you have a girlfriend" "Do you eat _____?" "Can you drink ______?" and so on. We even talked about Blood Type personality typing (which is really popular in Japan) and why Japan is so into it
One of the guys was a physical therapist, one of the women was the wife of the owner of the restaurant. The conversation and food and hooch kept flowing and they really, really love english. Actually most of them were over 50 and have been studying english since long before i was born.
They used to do a study group with a former ALT, but she has subsequently left, so i might pick up the slack and start doing conversation classes for them. but theyre really advanced. one thing I taught them was the difference between "nerd" "dork" and "geek." The Physical Therapist guy looked up "dork" in his electronic dictionary and insisted that it meant penis. "Penis. Penis. Penis." he said. This led to a discussion of the etymology of Dork and Geek. (you can look it up)
We exchanged gifts by numbering each gift and then pulling numbers out of a hat. I recieved a tiny stuffed cat with gigantic eyes. It's just shy of adorable, weighing in somewhere between cute and creepy. I brought a baseball hat from Aamerica that says "Chicago" on it. It went to the restaurant owner's wife. After dinner they refused to let me pay, which is almost getting not surprising. Every time i am invited out to dinner where i meet new friends for the first time, I am not allowed to pay and told "next time." Then, i drove home with the physical therapist and his wife. I found out that he plays guitar and loves rock music. His favorite bands are Chicago and Journey. Awesome.
So yeah. Fun night. Sorry this is so rambling. I am writing it all in one go, and in a disorganized fashion, and i can't be bothered to check it for mistakes or stupidity (my god i'm so tired lately). I'm off to sort gifts for my trip home and catch some z's.
Hope you've enjoyed, dear reader!
night school soap opera
So one of my close friends-- someone who extended himself to me right away after I arrived in Japan-- is an English teacher at the affiliated Night-school that caters to academic miscreants.
Early on, he mentioned that if I wanted to, as a purely voluntary act of charity, in my free time and for no pay ...I could teach with him in some of his classes. After listening to his description of the Night School situation, i decided i really wanted to do it. The night school hosts students who
a) can't make it, academically, in regular high schools
or
b) can't attend school during normal hours for one reason or another.
and
c) range in age from 14 to 70.
Some of them, apparently, dont even know the alphabet yet. My presence there would purely be for exposure to a native English speaker. Just to see that I exist and do indeed use English as my primary language. It seemed like a really unique opportunity to get involved in something different.
We decided that I would be introduced to the classes for the first time today. We planned a self-introduction lesson, where the students would ask me questions in English if possible, or Japanese if necessary, and I would answer with the help of the teacher, who would translate as needed.
I would do cool things like give them pennies and solve the rubik's cube too. Going to the night school after work means a 13 hour day (8:30 AM - 9:30 PM), but I was really getting excited about it.
After regular school, at around 5, i was gearing up to go to the classroom and get set up for the first night class. On my way out of the staff room, i mentioned cheerfully to my supervisor:
"Today i'm volunteer teaching at the Night School"
"Oh! if you teach there, you can take a day off!"
"Really? well right now i really have to go... class is starting like now"
*proceeds to go ask my Vice Principal (boss) about getting time off*
Okay, so what followed was my vice principal totally flipping his lid. Apparently this is a big no-no. If i work at the Night School, even purely out of the goodness of my heart, without any desire for compensation, i am REQUIRED to take time off from regular work. This is no problem if the VP knows about it ahead of time and appropriate documents are filed, but he feels that my night school friend was a sneaky little weasel for kind of tricking me into teaching under the table. Now let me make it clear that both of these guys have been extremely kind and supportive of me from day one. I am confident that neither wish to screw me over in any way. They're both intelligent guys.
Well, it turns out they're both stubborn guys too. the Vice Principal proceeds to call the Night School teacher downstairs from his (separate) staff room, and chews him out for like 10 minutes, while my supervisor and I look on awkwardly. My teacher friend (i was repremanded by another ALT for using names in my blog) runs off to start his class, which is now completely unplanned because the whole thing was supposed to involve me introducing myself. So I'm left stammering like "is everything okay? i'm so sorry!" Both guys told me I have no reason to be sorry, and criticized the other.
so awkward. I went up to make sure my Night School friend would be okay for his now completely unplanned class (obviously i was not allowed to teach that time) and he just ragged on the VP for being such a strict beaurocrat. These guys both need to ease up a little.
Anyway, I was kind've pumped for not having to stay at school until 9:30. I stopped in a little coffee house right across the street from my school that i've been meaning to try all along. Only the owner was there, a jovial 55 yearold woman who seemed equal parts surprised and happy to see me. She brewed up a cup of joe for me and we chatted for a good hour and a half. She spoke no English so it felt like a real testament to my progress that I was able to explain things like my family, my sister's adoptiveness, my happiness over the obama election, my approval of her masterful coffee making, etc. She was reaaaaally curious about me and seemed to be hinting the notion of me teaching private english classes there every once in awhile. She showed me a book full of conversational english phrases and casually mentioned that an ALT from a few years ago led a little conversation class there.
The idea sounds good to me. It seems fun and it'd mean some extra dollars. As long as my vice principal doesnt have an aneurysm when i ask him about it, i'll feel that out and see how it goes. It should be legit, a few of my ALT friends teach private study groups like that and rake in a nice supplementary budget. We'll see where that goes.
Tags:
autumn,
food,
japanese friends
Wow, what a weekday..
It is officially fall and the weather is finally reaching that comfortable crisp coolness. About half the students have switched from their ugly pale blue uniforms (see photo below) to their gothy all black and dark blue outfits. Boys even get to wear a cool black jacket with a stand-up collar and girls look, well, less terrible than before:
this week at work, students are submersed in midterm tests; a microcosm of the "examination hell" (an actual term) that they will be subjected to at the end of the year. This leaves me with blissful free time to fill by making lesson plans and thinking about my trip home for the winter holidays, not a single class to teach till Friday.
Today i overheard some conversations percolating about a visiting Canadian teacher and later, sure enough, i saw a little Caucasian man in a blue blazer being shown around the school by the principal, sitting down for a meeting and being offered the tea that is so indicative of courtesy by a female teacher. Turns out he is not a teacher, but a kendo society instructor in Canada, and has ties to Japan, so he came for a lecture by a kendo master that occurred this afternoon at my school.
I was told by my supervisor that "ALTs never go" so i could stay in the teacher's room while everyone else went to listen, but i told her i wanted to attend, and decided to look at it as a free Japanese lesson.
After the lecture i got to meet Mr. Gabriel Weitzner, who had a strange mash-up of Canadian and Eastern European accents and a poorly maintained beard. He recommended Japanesepod101.com, which has now come up several times for independant Japanese study. I will really have to look into it.
After school i met up with Nobu, the 28 year-old brother of one of my students. He has a penchant for meeting and talking to English speakers, and so he asked his younger brother to ask me to get in touch with him. We decided to go downtown, despite the unarguable "tuesdayness" of the day, and we wound up at Morris Pub, a british style bar with a wonderfully wide (even by US standards) selection of beers including Old Speckled Hen, Guinness, Anchor, Newcastle, Strongbow, and hoegarten.
I bought us a second round and he bought us pizza topped, true to japanese tastes, with broccoli, potato and mayo. I have to say it was completely delicious. It turns out Nobu is really into Economics, Politics, Linguistics and Neuroscience. All stuff i am really excited about. We had some good conversation and it was good language practice for both of us (admittedly mostly him).
It also turned out that the bar maid is a really nice British girl who happens to be a second-year ALT herself (with a non-JET company). Crazy thing is, last year she worked in Amagi. We talked about different ways to get downtown to Tenjin, and the multitude of fun things that there actually are to do in Amagi. She even asked if i have a girlfriend, and if i "fancy" japanese girls. Whatever the situation, i am totally loving the special attention that i can enjoy as a male ex-pat in Japan. So nice.
Japanese lesson of the day
Futsukayoi: Hangover
lit. "two days drunk"
It is officially fall and the weather is finally reaching that comfortable crisp coolness. About half the students have switched from their ugly pale blue uniforms (see photo below) to their gothy all black and dark blue outfits. Boys even get to wear a cool black jacket with a stand-up collar and girls look, well, less terrible than before:
this week at work, students are submersed in midterm tests; a microcosm of the "examination hell" (an actual term) that they will be subjected to at the end of the year. This leaves me with blissful free time to fill by making lesson plans and thinking about my trip home for the winter holidays, not a single class to teach till Friday.
Today i overheard some conversations percolating about a visiting Canadian teacher and later, sure enough, i saw a little Caucasian man in a blue blazer being shown around the school by the principal, sitting down for a meeting and being offered the tea that is so indicative of courtesy by a female teacher. Turns out he is not a teacher, but a kendo society instructor in Canada, and has ties to Japan, so he came for a lecture by a kendo master that occurred this afternoon at my school.
I was told by my supervisor that "ALTs never go" so i could stay in the teacher's room while everyone else went to listen, but i told her i wanted to attend, and decided to look at it as a free Japanese lesson.
After the lecture i got to meet Mr. Gabriel Weitzner, who had a strange mash-up of Canadian and Eastern European accents and a poorly maintained beard. He recommended Japanesepod101.com, which has now come up several times for independant Japanese study. I will really have to look into it.
After school i met up with Nobu, the 28 year-old brother of one of my students. He has a penchant for meeting and talking to English speakers, and so he asked his younger brother to ask me to get in touch with him. We decided to go downtown, despite the unarguable "tuesdayness" of the day, and we wound up at Morris Pub, a british style bar with a wonderfully wide (even by US standards) selection of beers including Old Speckled Hen, Guinness, Anchor, Newcastle, Strongbow, and hoegarten.
I bought us a second round and he bought us pizza topped, true to japanese tastes, with broccoli, potato and mayo. I have to say it was completely delicious. It turns out Nobu is really into Economics, Politics, Linguistics and Neuroscience. All stuff i am really excited about. We had some good conversation and it was good language practice for both of us (admittedly mostly him).
It also turned out that the bar maid is a really nice British girl who happens to be a second-year ALT herself (with a non-JET company). Crazy thing is, last year she worked in Amagi. We talked about different ways to get downtown to Tenjin, and the multitude of fun things that there actually are to do in Amagi. She even asked if i have a girlfriend, and if i "fancy" japanese girls. Whatever the situation, i am totally loving the special attention that i can enjoy as a male ex-pat in Japan. So nice.
Japanese lesson of the day
Futsukayoi: Hangover
lit. "two days drunk"
autumn equinox
Tags:
Akizuki,
inaka,
japanese friends,
night school
This Tuesday was the Autumnal Equinox, marking a national holiday. I had the day off of work, and i had taken 1 day of paid vacation on Monday (I have no classes on Mondays) to extend it into a nice 4-day weekend. I decided not to travel or do anything excessively busy, but instead to hang out with friends downtown and relax. It was a good call. This week I am feeling refreshed and am not constantly running around. This has come at the expense of going out to dinner with someone almost every night, and going to Judo practice less often, but my slower heartrate is worth it, i think.
On tuesday, for the holiday, i went on a trip with Matsuo sensei, my friend who teaches in the night school. If i haven't explained this before, the night school operates between 4 and 9 PM rather than during regular school hours. It serves students who cannot attend regular high school for one reason or another, be it academic or family related. These students range in age from 18 to 70 and many of them will not go on to college, according to Matsuo sensei and he expresses the difficulty of working with students with such widely varying ability and motivation levels. A few of his students are really motivated to learn English, while some of the others refuse to pay attention. Others still dont even know the ABC's. It sounds like a very hard job. Matsuo sensei said he used to teach at the regular academic school, but switched. He describes himself as a "black sheep" among the daytime staff. He is a lot like what an American (I.e. me) would think of as a "good" teacher. He is committed to making sure the students learn the material in a real and lasting way that extends beyond passing the tests. Unfortunately, the emphasis is the other way around in Japan. Every student, especially at a high level academic high school like Asakura, has the priority of scoring well on entrance exams so s/he can go to the best colleges. Teachers are expected to lecture and students are expected to listen. While this is an effective teaching strategy for many areas of Math science, history, and maybe even literature, it falls short in the foreign language department, where students will not learn to understand the linguistic ideas unless they at least attempt to use them. This means speaking up, discussing, asking questions, and shamelessly making mistakes. These habits to sit well with Japanese teachers or students, so English instruction is, admittedly broken in Japan. Matsuo sensei, therefore, being the kind of guy he is, was often behind in his lessons compared to other teachers who went along by the book at a pace too fast for students to actually understand (this is how i have to teach). This caused problems for Matsuo sensei and though he wasnt asked to leave, he voluntarily transferred to the night school where he has more freedom to teach how he wants (but more challenges to get students to actually work)
Anyway, Matsuo and I get along, and occasionally chat for a few minutes at work. He took me out to dinner a few weeks ago and we talked about Japanese vs. American education, and our respective interpretations of WWII. He's really a cool guy. A big part of it is definitely that he likes hanging out with ALTs and foreigners because he wants the english practice, but i have come to accept that this is simply a desirable part of my personality here in Japan, rather than be offended that my new friends are not exclusively interested in me for my dynamite persona. Furthermore, i tend to appreciate the people who are excited about learning and practicing english practice anyway. they tend to be the cooler ones.
At any rate, on Tueday, we took a trip to Akizuki a lovely scenic area of Amagi that is and beautiful. There are castle ruins, ancient buildings, rivers, falls, and hordes of cherry blossom trees not yet in bloom. In the spring it is supposed to be one of the best places in Kyushu for viewing the sakura. He picked me up in his wife's van at my apartment, and we headed into the mountains. We walked around the town of Akizuki for a while, stopping for lunch in a soba shop, and eventually hiked into the mountains. I was floored by how gloriously pretty this place is. It was hot. and raining. but it didnt matter. the rain actually lended to the aesthetic of old moss-covered rocks, tall shady trees and trickling rivers.
Some beautiful images were captured. they will be in the post above.
On tuesday, for the holiday, i went on a trip with Matsuo sensei, my friend who teaches in the night school. If i haven't explained this before, the night school operates between 4 and 9 PM rather than during regular school hours. It serves students who cannot attend regular high school for one reason or another, be it academic or family related. These students range in age from 18 to 70 and many of them will not go on to college, according to Matsuo sensei and he expresses the difficulty of working with students with such widely varying ability and motivation levels. A few of his students are really motivated to learn English, while some of the others refuse to pay attention. Others still dont even know the ABC's. It sounds like a very hard job. Matsuo sensei said he used to teach at the regular academic school, but switched. He describes himself as a "black sheep" among the daytime staff. He is a lot like what an American (I.e. me) would think of as a "good" teacher. He is committed to making sure the students learn the material in a real and lasting way that extends beyond passing the tests. Unfortunately, the emphasis is the other way around in Japan. Every student, especially at a high level academic high school like Asakura, has the priority of scoring well on entrance exams so s/he can go to the best colleges. Teachers are expected to lecture and students are expected to listen. While this is an effective teaching strategy for many areas of Math science, history, and maybe even literature, it falls short in the foreign language department, where students will not learn to understand the linguistic ideas unless they at least attempt to use them. This means speaking up, discussing, asking questions, and shamelessly making mistakes. These habits to sit well with Japanese teachers or students, so English instruction is, admittedly broken in Japan. Matsuo sensei, therefore, being the kind of guy he is, was often behind in his lessons compared to other teachers who went along by the book at a pace too fast for students to actually understand (this is how i have to teach). This caused problems for Matsuo sensei and though he wasnt asked to leave, he voluntarily transferred to the night school where he has more freedom to teach how he wants (but more challenges to get students to actually work)
Anyway, Matsuo and I get along, and occasionally chat for a few minutes at work. He took me out to dinner a few weeks ago and we talked about Japanese vs. American education, and our respective interpretations of WWII. He's really a cool guy. A big part of it is definitely that he likes hanging out with ALTs and foreigners because he wants the english practice, but i have come to accept that this is simply a desirable part of my personality here in Japan, rather than be offended that my new friends are not exclusively interested in me for my dynamite persona. Furthermore, i tend to appreciate the people who are excited about learning and practicing english practice anyway. they tend to be the cooler ones.
At any rate, on Tueday, we took a trip to Akizuki a lovely scenic area of Amagi that is and beautiful. There are castle ruins, ancient buildings, rivers, falls, and hordes of cherry blossom trees not yet in bloom. In the spring it is supposed to be one of the best places in Kyushu for viewing the sakura. He picked me up in his wife's van at my apartment, and we headed into the mountains. We walked around the town of Akizuki for a while, stopping for lunch in a soba shop, and eventually hiked into the mountains. I was floored by how gloriously pretty this place is. It was hot. and raining. but it didnt matter. the rain actually lended to the aesthetic of old moss-covered rocks, tall shady trees and trickling rivers.
Some beautiful images were captured. they will be in the post above.
Tags:
busy,
cut and paste,
festivals,
japanese friends
I've been writing fewer articles lately. But not because there is less going on, my dear readers, i assure you. In fact the problem is that there's too much happening to keep up with. I am getting more invitations than i can accept and for the first time in my life, I am literally finding myself with too few hours in a physical day. My apartment has been only "the place i sleep" lately and I am feeling a little burnt out. I am going to make an effort after this weekend to tone things down a little bit and schedule some "me time" amidst all the really fun engaging activities i have with new friends. A lot as been happened so i'll catch you up a little bit, moving backwards from today.
Today- I woke up around seven today, despite it being saturday, because my apartment building had its monthly "weeding" session. Every month all the men in the apartment don coveralls, weed-whackers and rakes to combat the overgrown grass that regerates every 30 days. So i spent the morning raking cut grass into piles and throwing it into a heap in one corner of the Jutaku parking lot. It was actually kind of fun to have a manly bonding experience with the few other residents of my (mostly abandoned) building. I was silly and wore short sleeves, so i am now plagued by cuts from rough grass and bug bites.
Around ten i was picked up to go to festival in Haki (even more rural than amagi by about five-fold) with Mizuki san, the 61 y/o super energetic and active office lady who is like my best friend at school. The festival was really cool; with a focus on organic farming and eco-friendly living. They had an electric car by mitsubishi on display and several stalls not selling, but simply informing passersby of products they could by for their homes like recycled rubber garden substrate and super-efficient LED light fixtures. There was also an assortment of farm-fresh fruit and vegetable stalls, and homemade ceramic-ware (i stocked up on these).
Mizuki san was working the ticket booth, so i spent most of my time wandering around with my camera like the creepy foreigner i am, and hanging out with kids and chatting to people in very very bad japanese. I can pretty much get by enough just to say my basic stats like "i am ....amagi. I am an english teacher at Asakura High school. My home is in Chicago in America. What is your name? Where do you live?" stuff like that, and of course the usual array of "thank you" "thank you very much" thank you very very much" "Are you okay?" "it's okay" "it's delicious" and other conversation smoothers.. It's really exciting because even though my japanese is by NO means developed and i have little to no grasp of grammar, my key phrase use is getting smoothe enough that people have been telling me i "speak japanese well" for the first time. It's important to note that this doesnt mean they think i have any talent, but recognize that i have made an effort. Before i was making an effort and it wasn't even noticable. NOW THATS WHAT I CALL PROGRESS!
Mizuki san sang karaoke on the stage and there were lots of other singing and dancing events. I spent most of my time hanging out with Mizuki san's 11 y/o grand daughter and her two friends. there was one area that had a giant pool with fish swimming around in it, and kids would jump in and try to catch the fish with their hands. If they got one, the "ride" operator would bag it up for them to take home, where, i guess they would be cooked cause those fish were way dead by they time they made it to the too-small bag. I shot some really great photos of that whole event. little kids holding up live fish victoriously.
Around 3:30, Mizuki san dropped me off at the Jutaku after a ride home talking about the names of fruits in english and japanese with her granddaughter Ana. I found a praying mantis hanging out on my bike, so i ran upstairs to my room and brought down a blender. I caught the mantid in the blender where it's now sitting in my kitchen. Later i will buy a critter keeper and start catching insects to feed it. Who can say "first pet"?? yay! i hope it's the first of many exotic pets from the local ecosystem. the cool thing about living in the "inaka" is that the bugs are huge! (ok that is mostly scary, but somewhat cool). Only a few of them are extremely poisonous. the others are just interesting to see. there are giant wasps that can apparently eat birds and hand-sized spiders, and 6" long centipedes that can send you to the hospital with a single bite. Anyway, i'm happy with my mantis friend.
Now i am on my way downtown to meet some other ALTs, Chris, Laura, Patrick and Laura's b-f walter. We are having thai food for dinner and tomorrow some of us are going to a metal show downtown too. I am hoping to convince some of them to come hang out at my apartment tonight in Amagi to play wii and hang out. thatll more likely happen tomorrow or monday though.
Moving on backwards, Last night was another celebration with my friends at OISCA. These are the international kids that i described in an earlier post-- my Captain Planet friends. OISCA is a live-abroad scholarship program that has participants all over the world learning agriultural techniques. I had been exchanging emails with Mahmood from Pakistan regarding our second meetup:
___________________________________________________ Yours Friend Mahmood Pakistan
Mahmood Oisca
Dear Mahmood
No problem! Just let me know when and where an OISCA event will be happening in the future, and I will do my best to attend.
Michael Seidman
mehmood and syam.....OISCA......
I found the event with only minor difficulty and it was even more PBS Special than the first celebration, and equally fun. OISCA was in amagi for some training which culminated in the celebratory dinner. They are halfway through their one year stay in Japan. This time everyone was wearing traditional clothes representative of their culture. between chinese silk dresses, embroidered pakistani vests and flourescent printed shirts from fiji, it was unreal. In case the clothes werent enough, after dinner they all got on stage and sang together. one boy from the phillipines played accompaniment on the guitar while everyone else swayed arm in arm and sang in Japanese. Quite the "we are the world" moment. I loved it. Afterwards there was japanese dancing with people in creepy masks and more back patting and hand shaking
I was talking to one of the japanese girls there, having the same conversation to be had with everyone else (I teach english at asakura koukou, I havent been studying japanese very long. it's difficult) and outta the blue she asked me for my number! seriously, flirting is so easy here. even accidentally. I cant even begin to imagine what itll be like once i know even semi-decent Japanese. My friend pat is constantly chatting up Japanese girls and has a fair bit of success even in his stained "patrick star" spongebob tshirt and cargo shorts. it's like for foreigners there are no standards. we just look foreign, and some people are inherantly drawn to that. somewhat unfortunate in the long-run perhaps, but most definitely exploitable
well this is getting long so i'll cap it off here. you can see the photos on flickr (click the link on the right) and please remind me to add some of the extra successful images later. when i have a private life again. Being an English teacher in the inaka really is like being a public servant. they told us this during orientation but only now can i really understand it. It's a big honor to be such a "representative" but at the same time, it's difficult and exhausting.
keeping up the pace! signing out.
Today- I woke up around seven today, despite it being saturday, because my apartment building had its monthly "weeding" session. Every month all the men in the apartment don coveralls, weed-whackers and rakes to combat the overgrown grass that regerates every 30 days. So i spent the morning raking cut grass into piles and throwing it into a heap in one corner of the Jutaku parking lot. It was actually kind of fun to have a manly bonding experience with the few other residents of my (mostly abandoned) building. I was silly and wore short sleeves, so i am now plagued by cuts from rough grass and bug bites.
Around ten i was picked up to go to festival in Haki (even more rural than amagi by about five-fold) with Mizuki san, the 61 y/o super energetic and active office lady who is like my best friend at school. The festival was really cool; with a focus on organic farming and eco-friendly living. They had an electric car by mitsubishi on display and several stalls not selling, but simply informing passersby of products they could by for their homes like recycled rubber garden substrate and super-efficient LED light fixtures. There was also an assortment of farm-fresh fruit and vegetable stalls, and homemade ceramic-ware (i stocked up on these).
Mizuki san was working the ticket booth, so i spent most of my time wandering around with my camera like the creepy foreigner i am, and hanging out with kids and chatting to people in very very bad japanese. I can pretty much get by enough just to say my basic stats like "i am ....amagi. I am an english teacher at Asakura High school. My home is in Chicago in America. What is your name? Where do you live?" stuff like that, and of course the usual array of "thank you" "thank you very much" thank you very very much" "Are you okay?" "it's okay" "it's delicious" and other conversation smoothers.. It's really exciting because even though my japanese is by NO means developed and i have little to no grasp of grammar, my key phrase use is getting smoothe enough that people have been telling me i "speak japanese well" for the first time. It's important to note that this doesnt mean they think i have any talent, but recognize that i have made an effort. Before i was making an effort and it wasn't even noticable. NOW THATS WHAT I CALL PROGRESS!
Mizuki san sang karaoke on the stage and there were lots of other singing and dancing events. I spent most of my time hanging out with Mizuki san's 11 y/o grand daughter and her two friends. there was one area that had a giant pool with fish swimming around in it, and kids would jump in and try to catch the fish with their hands. If they got one, the "ride" operator would bag it up for them to take home, where, i guess they would be cooked cause those fish were way dead by they time they made it to the too-small bag. I shot some really great photos of that whole event. little kids holding up live fish victoriously.
Around 3:30, Mizuki san dropped me off at the Jutaku after a ride home talking about the names of fruits in english and japanese with her granddaughter Ana. I found a praying mantis hanging out on my bike, so i ran upstairs to my room and brought down a blender. I caught the mantid in the blender where it's now sitting in my kitchen. Later i will buy a critter keeper and start catching insects to feed it. Who can say "first pet"?? yay! i hope it's the first of many exotic pets from the local ecosystem. the cool thing about living in the "inaka" is that the bugs are huge! (ok that is mostly scary, but somewhat cool). Only a few of them are extremely poisonous. the others are just interesting to see. there are giant wasps that can apparently eat birds and hand-sized spiders, and 6" long centipedes that can send you to the hospital with a single bite. Anyway, i'm happy with my mantis friend.
Now i am on my way downtown to meet some other ALTs, Chris, Laura, Patrick and Laura's b-f walter. We are having thai food for dinner and tomorrow some of us are going to a metal show downtown too. I am hoping to convince some of them to come hang out at my apartment tonight in Amagi to play wii and hang out. thatll more likely happen tomorrow or monday though.
Moving on backwards, Last night was another celebration with my friends at OISCA. These are the international kids that i described in an earlier post-- my Captain Planet friends. OISCA is a live-abroad scholarship program that has participants all over the world learning agriultural techniques. I had been exchanging emails with Mahmood from Pakistan regarding our second meetup:
___________________________________________________
Dear Michael Seidman
we r very glad to read your mail.Thankyou very much for remember us.we should make new friends in this life because this life is very importent for human. it would be good experience for us that we may become close friend.I hope u come to my center as soon as posible. Thank you
Dear Mahmood,
Thank you for your email!
I am doing very well and I was very grateful for the opportunity to meet all of you yesterday. I had a really great time and being with so many wonderful people from around the world, was truly a special experience for me.
I hope we can spend mroe time getting to know each other in the future. I am certain that we will become close friends.
I am quite busy being a new teacher in Japan, but i would like to make trips out on Sundays to see you soon. Mizuki-san has offered to take me, so I hope to be seeing you again soon!
Take care, and please give my best wishes to everyone at OISCA
Michael Seidman
thank u Mahmood Pakistan Fukuoka
My dear .i thank u forget us ,May be u r busy.how r u .pls tell me. Mahmood Oisca
My Dear Mike Goodevening
how r u.we r very happy to meet u.maybe next time we will togeater again.we r very importent students in japan and u for us. pls send mail us.
Thanks Mahmood,
good to hear from you again.
I would like to join you at the center someday soon. I will ask Mizuki san when her next trip will be. Perhaps i can go with her.
Mike, United States.
My dear .i thank u forget us ,May be u r busy.how r u .pls tell me.
thank u
Dear Mehmood,
Of course i have not forgotten about you! Since we met two weeks ago, I have been somewhat busy, and I know that you are only free on Sundays. Unfortunately my last few sundays have been occupied by my school's Sports Festival, and I have not been free. This weekend I will be in Kumamoto Prefecture, but perhaps next Sunday we can do something.
Are there any events i can attend?
I have been asking Mizuki san about OISCA events. She said that there was going to be an OISCA event on Friday, September 9, but today she told me she cannot attend. Can you give me information about what is happening on Sept. 9? Maybe I can join you.
MikeMy Dear
sorry so sorry my dear sep9 we will work.we can ,t attend you,pls next time we will try for other program.Pls don,t mind . thank u
Dear Mahmood
No problem! Just let me know when and where an OISCA event will be happening in the future, and I will do my best to attend.
Michael Seidman
My Dear
we will be there on amagi on 11th. sept. as per our shedule, we have some official programmes and home stay.
the programme starting from the Asakuracity office at 9 O clock morning. on that day we will stay in amagi and in the next dayalso we have tight schedule. but we have a party on the same day at 6 O clock. i dont know the venue of the party. please ask to Mizuki san the name of the place where the party is going on....
nothing more at this time... take care... bye....
regards
sugoi!
perhaps i will see you at the party! i will try to ask mizuki san for details.
Mike
_____________________________________________________I found the event with only minor difficulty and it was even more PBS Special than the first celebration, and equally fun. OISCA was in amagi for some training which culminated in the celebratory dinner. They are halfway through their one year stay in Japan. This time everyone was wearing traditional clothes representative of their culture. between chinese silk dresses, embroidered pakistani vests and flourescent printed shirts from fiji, it was unreal. In case the clothes werent enough, after dinner they all got on stage and sang together. one boy from the phillipines played accompaniment on the guitar while everyone else swayed arm in arm and sang in Japanese. Quite the "we are the world" moment. I loved it. Afterwards there was japanese dancing with people in creepy masks and more back patting and hand shaking
I was talking to one of the japanese girls there, having the same conversation to be had with everyone else (I teach english at asakura koukou, I havent been studying japanese very long. it's difficult) and outta the blue she asked me for my number! seriously, flirting is so easy here. even accidentally. I cant even begin to imagine what itll be like once i know even semi-decent Japanese. My friend pat is constantly chatting up Japanese girls and has a fair bit of success even in his stained "patrick star" spongebob tshirt and cargo shorts. it's like for foreigners there are no standards. we just look foreign, and some people are inherantly drawn to that. somewhat unfortunate in the long-run perhaps, but most definitely exploitable
well this is getting long so i'll cap it off here. you can see the photos on flickr (click the link on the right) and please remind me to add some of the extra successful images later. when i have a private life again. Being an English teacher in the inaka really is like being a public servant. they told us this during orientation but only now can i really understand it. It's a big honor to be such a "representative" but at the same time, it's difficult and exhausting.
keeping up the pace! signing out.
Tags:
japanese friends
I just got back from dinner with Jozaki san and his wife, Yoko. I met them at the first office "enkai" (lets-get-drunk-and-express-ourselves-frankly party) a few weeks ago. During the party, i did the polite japanese thing of walking around the room with a big bottle of beer, pouring for others and striking up conversation. as per customary, i started with my bosses' table. My vice principal happened to be hosting his old friend at the party, Jozaki san. He seemed quite interested in me and spoke really nice english. Later he came to my table to pour me a drink and talk some more. He was really wasted and gave me his phone number on a paper chopsticks sleeve.
Later we moved on to the "2nd party." at a snack bar. It was just me and my bosses and Jozaki san. A snack bar is typically a "red-light" sort of establishment where the drinks are expensive, but you get free snacks and the company of a presumably cute hostess who is expected to flirt with you.
Since this was Amagi, our snack hostess was about 55, but done up in ridiculous makeup nevertheless. To make sure everything was well understood, my higher-ups invited their wives, as did jozaki san. All my bosses as well as the Jozaki's are interested in speaking english, so we had a lot of slow english conversation while having rounds of beer and whisky, and they got more and more interested in what i had to say. Jozaki san and Yoko seemed especially excited about knowing me and told me i should come to their house for dinner some time. that turned out to be tonight.
Jozaki san is an accountant and his house is HUGE. They live just down the road from me. Their place (the same house where Jozaki grew up) was just remodeled last year. During the remodelling they lived in the neighboring house which they also own, and is now uninhabitted. crazy isnt it? After all my horrible issues with my subsoviet apartment, i am secretly hoping that they offer their unused second house or something. That's not gonna happen though.
Anyway their house is huge, their living room contains a computer and two hdtvs and it's about as big as my entire apartment. While most houses have a traditional japanese style room with tatami flooring, sliding doors and a shrine, they have a whole wing of the house. Again, it's as big or bigger than my entire place. I was floored.
The Jozakis are incredibly nice and enjoy hosting foreign exchange students and meeting gaijin like me. Jozaki san spent a year in New Zealand when he was 16 and felt so welcomed there that he has spent the rest of his life paying it forward as a homestay dad. The Jozaki's are now in their 50's I gathered.
For dinner, Yoko made us soup, salad, sliced veggies and amazing tempura. She promises to teach me some cooking in the future and they flat out stated that they'd like to host me for dinner "twice or three times a month." strangely specific, but i can roll with it. We talked about English, their experiences abroad and with homestays, and my experience in Japan so far.
Jozaki san chainsmoked throughout the evening and their toy poodle, Ran, humped my leg the whole time. It made everything all the more entertaining. While they had picked me up by car earlier, we all walked back to the Jutaku (about 15 minutes) while talking about Earnest Hemmingway and Haruki Murakami.
Damn i vowed to myself to write articles in this blog and not so much "today i did X Y and Z" but there you have it. Either way, today was pretty great.
Later we moved on to the "2nd party." at a snack bar. It was just me and my bosses and Jozaki san. A snack bar is typically a "red-light" sort of establishment where the drinks are expensive, but you get free snacks and the company of a presumably cute hostess who is expected to flirt with you.
Since this was Amagi, our snack hostess was about 55, but done up in ridiculous makeup nevertheless. To make sure everything was well understood, my higher-ups invited their wives, as did jozaki san. All my bosses as well as the Jozaki's are interested in speaking english, so we had a lot of slow english conversation while having rounds of beer and whisky, and they got more and more interested in what i had to say. Jozaki san and Yoko seemed especially excited about knowing me and told me i should come to their house for dinner some time. that turned out to be tonight.
Jozaki san is an accountant and his house is HUGE. They live just down the road from me. Their place (the same house where Jozaki grew up) was just remodeled last year. During the remodelling they lived in the neighboring house which they also own, and is now uninhabitted. crazy isnt it? After all my horrible issues with my subsoviet apartment, i am secretly hoping that they offer their unused second house or something. That's not gonna happen though.
Anyway their house is huge, their living room contains a computer and two hdtvs and it's about as big as my entire apartment. While most houses have a traditional japanese style room with tatami flooring, sliding doors and a shrine, they have a whole wing of the house. Again, it's as big or bigger than my entire place. I was floored.
The Jozakis are incredibly nice and enjoy hosting foreign exchange students and meeting gaijin like me. Jozaki san spent a year in New Zealand when he was 16 and felt so welcomed there that he has spent the rest of his life paying it forward as a homestay dad. The Jozaki's are now in their 50's I gathered.
For dinner, Yoko made us soup, salad, sliced veggies and amazing tempura. She promises to teach me some cooking in the future and they flat out stated that they'd like to host me for dinner "twice or three times a month." strangely specific, but i can roll with it. We talked about English, their experiences abroad and with homestays, and my experience in Japan so far.
Jozaki san chainsmoked throughout the evening and their toy poodle, Ran, humped my leg the whole time. It made everything all the more entertaining. While they had picked me up by car earlier, we all walked back to the Jutaku (about 15 minutes) while talking about Earnest Hemmingway and Haruki Murakami.
Damn i vowed to myself to write articles in this blog and not so much "today i did X Y and Z" but there you have it. Either way, today was pretty great.
Earth! Wind! Fire! HEART!
Tags:
japanese friends,
OISCA,
photos
wow, im in the wake of a ridiculously amazing and surprising night
It all started with one of my best friends around the school, Mizuki-san. She is a 61-yearold office lady who loves chatting with me, even though she speaks almost no english and it goes without saying that i can barely speak a word in japanese. Nevertheless, she persists to bring me snacks and greet me enthusiastically whenever we cross paths, which is quite encouraging and nice. Whenever she wants to tell me something at all complicated (beyond "good morning") she brings with her a little japanese-english dictionary and points to the phrase in question. "Pension tax," "Clear tape," "You must apply by form," whatever. her super attitude about speaking english and being my friend have been really inspiring for me to study japanese. the fact that this old lady is making an effort to talk to me in MY language in her own country obliges me to get my japanese up to par!
Last week she came to my desk with her trusty dictionary and managed to communicate the following: "Fireworks ...this Saturday!... You come?" She mentioned something about her friends being able to speak english, but i had no idea what to expect. Obviously i agreed enthusiastically to join her because i love her and it sounded like fun.
SO last night was the night. She rang my doorbell about half an hour early and i answered in my exercise shorts, which was greatly emberassing as i had been planning on taking a shower and changing before she arrived. I quickly got the idea that she wanted to leave promptly, so I asked her for 5 minutes to change and REALLY quickly showered, got dressed and ran downstairs where she was waiting in the car. I met her 7 year old granddaughter and thought, "ah it's just the three of us. no english after all. Ah well! should be fun!"
When we arrived, we met up with a congregating group near a table under a bridge near the river, where the fireworks would be going off. She started introducing me to various Japanese friends, as we set out food. standard fare: my awkward japanese phrases "my name is" and "pleased to meet you" went smoothely.
It was particularly moving to speak to Tsetop, the boy from Tibet, who sat down next to me and eagerly engaged me in conversation, speaking the best english in the group byfar. His inquiries didnt make a lot of sense to me, because though i had at first explained that i was from Chicago, he seemed very curious about "where my family was from" (i explained that they were from eastern european origins originally, but have been in America for several generations by now) and he also humbly asked me about my opinions of China were as we got into a conversation about the Chinese-Tibettan relationship. I explained my opinions on China, given my limitted knowledge and how my sister was Chinese adopted, which only seemed to cause him more confusion
More crazyness ensued when i got home from this fun evening. I was bumming around the internet before going to bed and happened to google the name of my office lady, Mizuki-san. I clicked on "image results" and openned one of the first images that popped up, just a flash snapshot of a couple of Japanese women. That linked me to someone's blog, seemingly a fellow ex-pat in Japan. While looking through the blog, i noticed "Fukuoka" in a few places, so i took a closer look: was this someone living near me? Then to my surprise, i started seeing FACES i recognized! Teachers from my high school! and the vice principal! I slowly realized that this was a previous ALT at Asakura High School. A picture of my principal captioned "the new school principal." a look at her "about me" sidebar revealed the name: kels. then i remembered hearing about an ALT two years ago named Kelsey. In fact, one of the night school teachers had emailed me before i came to japan and invited me to get in touch with a previous ALT named Kelsey! this coincidence was quickly awe inspiring, and i decided to stop disreagrding fate and email her right away, something i had been meaning to do but put off for quite a while.. crazy how life works sometimes, isnt it?
It all started with one of my best friends around the school, Mizuki-san. She is a 61-yearold office lady who loves chatting with me, even though she speaks almost no english and it goes without saying that i can barely speak a word in japanese. Nevertheless, she persists to bring me snacks and greet me enthusiastically whenever we cross paths, which is quite encouraging and nice. Whenever she wants to tell me something at all complicated (beyond "good morning") she brings with her a little japanese-english dictionary and points to the phrase in question. "Pension tax," "Clear tape," "You must apply by form," whatever. her super attitude about speaking english and being my friend have been really inspiring for me to study japanese. the fact that this old lady is making an effort to talk to me in MY language in her own country obliges me to get my japanese up to par!
Last week she came to my desk with her trusty dictionary and managed to communicate the following: "Fireworks ...this Saturday!... You come?" She mentioned something about her friends being able to speak english, but i had no idea what to expect. Obviously i agreed enthusiastically to join her because i love her and it sounded like fun.
SO last night was the night. She rang my doorbell about half an hour early and i answered in my exercise shorts, which was greatly emberassing as i had been planning on taking a shower and changing before she arrived. I quickly got the idea that she wanted to leave promptly, so I asked her for 5 minutes to change and REALLY quickly showered, got dressed and ran downstairs where she was waiting in the car. I met her 7 year old granddaughter and thought, "ah it's just the three of us. no english after all. Ah well! should be fun!"
When we arrived, we met up with a congregating group near a table under a bridge near the river, where the fireworks would be going off. She started introducing me to various Japanese friends, as we set out food. standard fare: my awkward japanese phrases "my name is" and "pleased to meet you" went smoothely.
Then she took me over to a different area where several distinctly non-japanese guys were hanging out. They didnt look associated with the first group, but one of the Japanese men came over to introduce me. One by one they introduced themselves and shook my hand: Tsetop from Tibet, Mahmood from Pakistan, they were almost entirely made up of people different countries all over the world! also including India, Fiji, the Philippines, and so on. I was pretty stunned. Were they refugees, grifters or what?
As we ate, we made conversation about global politics, the importance of the environment, and what it means to come from one country to another. I felt like i had fallen into an episode of Captain Planet.
It was particularly moving to speak to Tsetop, the boy from Tibet, who sat down next to me and eagerly engaged me in conversation, speaking the best english in the group byfar. His inquiries didnt make a lot of sense to me, because though i had at first explained that i was from Chicago, he seemed very curious about "where my family was from" (i explained that they were from eastern european origins originally, but have been in America for several generations by now) and he also humbly asked me about my opinions of China were as we got into a conversation about the Chinese-Tibettan relationship. I explained my opinions on China, given my limitted knowledge and how my sister was Chinese adopted, which only seemed to cause him more confusion
Soon we realized why. The Japanese word for China is "Chuugoku", which sounds quite similar to "Chicago." With all the different people saying that i was from Cicago in different accents, Tsetop had the idea that i was from China, and soon realized that i was actually an American. From that point things made a lot more sense. I wandered down the lanes of stalls selling food and toys with a group of the guys and we found a spot on the wet pavement by the river to watch the fireworks go off.
Tsetop openned up a pack of cigarettes and lit one up while he openned his phone up and had it play music through its tinny speakers as we sat talking about the world, politics and economics. Though he is ethnically Tibetan, he has never seen his country, as he grew up as a refugee in Butan. Honestly my conversations with him were more cerebral than many exchanges ive had with native english-speakers.
When he learned that i like to paint, Tsetop said he had a special request for me:
"Please make paintings about the importance of agriculture."
When i got home later that night, i emailed him some images of paintings by Jean-Francois Millet, who was famous for painting the common agricultural working class on a religious scale:
During the fireworks we all chatted, while some of the boys tried to get the attention of cute children sitting near us with their parents, by poking their ponytails and making funny faces at them.
the scary gaijin poking them, of course, terrified the little children and they sought consolance from their parents, who luckily had a sense of humor about the good-natured antagonism. the hour-long fireworks show was pretty impressive considering that they took place in Asakura-city, my Inaka (rural) area.
Afterwards, we all exchanged information and the OISCO group invited me to come spend time with them on Sundays, when they have a break from their grueling schedule of cleaning, studying and working. Apparently Mizuki-san, the office lady who took me, volunteers there teaching Japanese, and gave me the impression that she's willing to take me when she goes to visit. As she gave me a ride back to my apartment, I made limitted cross-language conversation with her adult daughter and two grandchildren. Her grandson knew a lot of great english phrases and was talking about grilled octopus. I managed to communicate that i'd had a pet octopus, which they found endlessly amusing, and they were trying to ask me if i like to eat "ika" or squid. In trying to get the idea across, the boy translated Ika as "Kraken." I told him that was more like a Kaiju (giant monster). When i said goodnight and "nice to meet you" he very proudly said "Nice to meet you too" to everyone's applause.More crazyness ensued when i got home from this fun evening. I was bumming around the internet before going to bed and happened to google the name of my office lady, Mizuki-san. I clicked on "image results" and openned one of the first images that popped up, just a flash snapshot of a couple of Japanese women. That linked me to someone's blog, seemingly a fellow ex-pat in Japan. While looking through the blog, i noticed "Fukuoka" in a few places, so i took a closer look: was this someone living near me? Then to my surprise, i started seeing FACES i recognized! Teachers from my high school! and the vice principal! I slowly realized that this was a previous ALT at Asakura High School. A picture of my principal captioned "the new school principal." a look at her "about me" sidebar revealed the name: kels. then i remembered hearing about an ALT two years ago named Kelsey. In fact, one of the night school teachers had emailed me before i came to japan and invited me to get in touch with a previous ALT named Kelsey! this coincidence was quickly awe inspiring, and i decided to stop disreagrding fate and email her right away, something i had been meaning to do but put off for quite a while.. crazy how life works sometimes, isnt it?
Tags:
beer,
japanese friends
I just got back home from the Kirin beer factory where my i got drunk with my vice principal.
After an awesome school band concert where they performed "Phantom of the Opera" and acted out the Lion King, he took me and his wife to the "Kirin Beer Farm" restaurant where he shelled out $50-$60 filling me (along with himself) with meat and beer. actual variety too! stout, even!
SO GOOD. this guy is awesome. More + pictures later.
This weekend should be great too. Prefectural Orientation + afterparty in Fukuoka City. the afterparty is gathering at a place called "FUBAR". Any Clark readers out there? It's the same name as the trashy bar in Worcester. I can't escape, ahhh!
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