Super Duper Mega Spring Break Update March 30, 2010
Posted by Earthdragonette in Apologies, Culinary Pursuits, Cultural Exchange, Japanese GET, Julie Gets Philosophical, Me Time, Student Moments, Time to Party.Tags: celebrity, cultural identity, ducktales, french food, hannah montana, hermione, Japan, Japanese, jet, Jyona33, late posts, one year to go, osaka, osaka girl, osaka hyatt, room service, spring break, The Child, The Japanese Best Friend, unnecessary references to literature, wicked, winter term, zelda
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And so I’m back from my adventures. I would apologize for the slight tardiness of this post, but with my recent habits I’m starting to sound like a broken record. How about this? Every time I write a post … even if it’s on time … let’s just assume that I’m sorry that it’s late. Consider this a veritable blank check of apologies and prostrations for my tendency to choose baking bread over blogging.
Whew. Now that that’s out of the way~
I can’t believe that my painstaking planned dream vacation in Osaka is Over. I won’t lie to you – I had a very intense and very real emotional reaction when the shuttle bus pulled away from the hotel to take me to a nearby subway station last Sunday morning. I don’t know what it is about hotels but I just love them. LOVE them. It isn’t even the “being waited on hand and foot” element because my favorite part is breaking that “customer/employee” wall and getting the staff members to tell me about themselves. I think it’s just that hotels are just groovy. I love everything from the smell to the little “ding!”s of the elevators to room service.
Room service.
Don’t even get me started on how much I love the concept and perfect execution of room service. The fantastic and tangible wonder that I used to experience on Christmas morning? Yes, that’s now been transferred to anytime a hotel employee rolls in a silver covered tray of food into my room.
So, in an attempt to wrench myself away from this theme of hotelphilia before I inspire myself to compose a sonnet on behalf of the Hyatt Regency Osaka, let me direct us towards the content of my trip. Or, rather, to my three favorite memories from the trip. After that, I’ll have some words about this “end of the school year” time that we’re currently swimming through. In addition, expect poignant closing remarks about how I am 366 days from leaving Japan for good (and-I-really-REALLY-mean-it-this-time).
Osaka Memory BEST THREE!!! (As the Japanese would title this.)
Number 3: Eating a full-course French dinner on the top floor of the Osaka Regency Hyatt Hotel
Is it even possible for me to make that memory title sound even more highfalutin? In all seriousness, though, I think that Friday’s dinner might make it in my Top 5 Best Dinners of All Time. (Which sounds to me like a worthy post in of itself. We’ll just save that idea for a rainy-nothing-is-happening-at-all-and-you’re-tired-of-me-talking-about-The-Child day.)
After I arrived at the Hyatt, I spent some time in the gym before deciding to visit one of the hotel’s many famous restaurants. I was torn between French and Italian, but opted for French because I don’t have a great deal of experience with that type of food and I was in the mood to spoil myself. The French restaurant in this Hyatt is also (as I mentioned before) on top of the hotel. It was actually the vast influence of Jyona33 that made me favor the restaurant on that particular point.
Jyona33 is extremely fond of the New York Bar at the Tokyo Park Hyatt Hotel. Not only is it the setting for numerous scenes in the movie Lost in Translation, but it also is one of his favorite places in the entire world. Situated on top of the hotel, you can see the most amazing view of the Tokyo skyline. I do actually think that he counts it as a point of personal attack against him and our friendship that I have yet to visit this bar.
Anyway, because I’m the Osaka Girl to his Tokyo Boy, it only made sense for me to spend my first night in the Osaka Hyatt in its version of the New York Bar, which also offered a spectacular view of the city (even more breathtaking in the setting sun). I was the first person in the restaurant for dinner, and so I had the staff to myself for the first twenty minutes or so. This was great fun for me, because it didn’t take them long to figure out that I speak Japanese. That, my general youth, and my “I’m just happy to be here” attitude made us all BFF for the evening.
It was particularly entertaining for me, because I would tell one waiter something about myself and then another waiter would stop by my table a little while later and pick up the conversation from that point. I suppose from this I can deduce that they were discussing me in the kitchens, which normally would make me cry “Celebrity!” and fill me with dread. This time, though, I found it amusing and it seemed to cement our kinship. They kept me well supplied with bread, champagne, and tea. I told them what it was like to teach in the Japanese countryside. There were also occasions where they practiced their English with me, and for once I didn’t feel exploited.
Six courses, some champagne, some tea, and two hours after I arrived, I veritably floated down to my bedroom. In my four years here, I have had a variety of meals in a variety of venues with a variety of people. I thoroughly enjoy eating freshly caught fish with my students or grilled cow organs with my slightly wicked and shocking coworkers. But I have no problem enjoying the more international, expensive, and elegant side of Japan. None whatsoever.
Number 2: Reconnecting with an old friend and recalling that I am not as misanthropic as I often perceive myself to be.
When I first moved to Japan, I endeavored to join a soccer team that worked out of Matsusaka. In doing so I met a former JET, we’ll call her Zelda. In addition to the affinity for video games (hence the name), we’re also linked through my best friend from college. It turns out that they went to high school together and knew each other well. It is indeed a small world after all. At any rate, my association with the soccer team faded, but my friendship with Zelda remains to this day.
Zelda is currently living in Osaka and so we decided to meet for lunch on Sunday. We found each other with relative ease and proceeded to a spectacular Vietnamese restaurant. A bowl of pho, some spring rolls, and two hours later, she and her boyfriend bade me Bon Voyage at the Kintetsu train station.
Because of my work schedule and the social commitments that I regularly make with my Dance Group, my coworkers, or my Japanese friends, I really don’t have many opportunities to socialize with people who are truly fluent in English – and fluent they way that I am. The Japanese Best Friend is certainly fluent, but if I started to whistle, say, the theme to DuckTales, I don’t think that she would appreciate it the way that I do. Conversations really do take on a particular spin if you can make vague references to books, movies, songs, or people and have your associates understand you with little to no effort on their part.
Over time, I’ve adapted to not making these kinds of references in conversation. It’s as if I’m a radio station and when I broadcast on a normal day, I leave out the heavy metal, the political commentary, and the occasional risqué aside. When I meet with people like Zelda, though, I suddenly have the option of playing Sonata Arctica or offering an opinion about healthcare. There are, I also find, more opportunities for the well placed “that’s what she said” joke, which can be a valuable conversation maker (or breaker). I don’t always choose to use these elements, granted, but at least the option is there.
Wow, that was a lot of buildup for this particular memory. It also slightly takes away from Zelda because she’s starting to sound like a vehicle through which I can more fully express myself as a cultural entity. This was not exactly the point. She is, on her own merits, exceptionally funny and interesting to spend time with.
Still, the luncheon with her was an opportunity for me to remember that I like to talk to people. I like to hear what they do and listen to their stories. I enjoy making them laugh, and finding the right strings of humor and absurdity to tug on so that I can create all sorts of hysteria. I forget this sometimes, and in doing so I spiral downward into this belief that I prefer my apartment/cave/hobbit hole to the light of the Daystar and Those Who Would Frolic in It.
In truth, what I suspect what I prefer are conversations that do not focus on my superficial elements – be they foreign or American. This means that I probably don’t do well with meeting new people, because new associations often begin with the superficial and progress to the meaningful. This, among other things, leads me to believe that I will spend my entire life flirting with the role of the Byronic Hero(ine).
Still, lunch with Zelda, aside from being just a regular grand time, also gave me a lot to think about on my train ride home. I like to think of myself as stretching out my potential on a daily basis, but there really are some elements of my character that I can’t attend to while I’m in my current situation. This revelation is good for me to keep in mind, because it reminds me that there is more growth to be had once I get back to the United States.
Number 1: Seeing Wicked in Japanese
The summer before my senior year, I worked for the St. John’s Alumni office. It’s one of my fondest memories from college. My two bosses were genuinely funny, warm, and interesting people and they were very supportive of me throughout some rather difficult and trying times. In addition, they were responsible for another dinner that qualifies for a spot in my Top 5 Best Dinners of All Time. (That really is a post that I should focus on.)
So, the summer before my senior year, both of my bosses became obsessed with the musical Wicked, and subsequently drew me into their fanaticism. I listened to the soundtrack every day for three months while I worked out in the gym. During slow periods at work, it was not unknown for one of us to burst into song only to then be joined by the other two. They were fortunate enough to eventually see the stage show, but circumstances kept me from doing the same.
Until last Saturday night.
Knowing the play as well as I do and understanding Japanese to the point that I can, I wasn’t worried about the musical being in Japanese. In fact, I think in many ways, this play is almost more Japanese in feeling than Western. At the heart of the play is the conflict between Elphaba and Galinda/Glinda. One is, well, a Byronic Hero(ine), and the other is super cute, perky, and often superficial. This dichotomy is well-known to the Japanese and it shows up a lot in their books, movies, and music. I think that the actors fully understood their characters; all of the performances were simply superb.
What was particularly wonderful for me was that for the first time, I felt as though I were a real member of the audience. Whenever I go and see movies in Japan, I usually see them in English with Japanese subtitles. This means that I often understand jokes at different times or in different ways than the other audience members. Oftentimes, many asides and quips aren’t even translated. Nine times out of ten, my reactions to the movie are completely out of sync with everyone else’s.
On Saturday, though, we all went through the story together. Granted, there were some times when I found something to be particularly humorous that others did not, or they caught something in Japanese that I didn’t. For the most part, though, we were all on the same page. We were emotionally moved in the same way and at the same points; there was no sense of comprehension hierarchy or cultural ownership. We were all there to see and appreciate the exact same thing.
So, in addition to Wicked being a fantastic play, it did a lot to soothe the perpetual “one of these things (i.e. that-would-be-you-Julie) is not like the other” feeling that I often carry around with me. In this way, my weekend of relaxation in Osaka was truly made possible.
And now here, we are, the last day before the Spring Term begins (more or less). The New Student Entrance ceremony is next Tuesday, and then I believe that classes start on Thursday. We’ll have about a week or so of adjustments, meetings, and orientations, and I suspect things will settle down around the week of the 12th. This term is one of the longest in the school year, and won’t finish until the middle of July.
As we finish with the winter term, though, I find myself feeling reflective and thoughtful. There are a lot of “end of the year” ceremonies, dinners, and activities afoot right now, and I can’t help but think that next year they will focus (to some degree) on me. My students (Hermione and Hannah Montana in particular) were in a frenzy for some time before I reassured them that I wouldn’t be leaving this year. I dread their reactions when I finally depart next April, but I’ve resolved to cross that bridge when I come to it.
In the meantime, we’re on the edge of a new year full of new experiences and new opportunities. The Japanese Best Friend and I are going to Tokyo for a small vacation at the beginning of May, I hope to go back to Osaka sometime in the next few months, Jyona33 may very well be visiting us in July, and there is still talk that I may be allowed to move into the bigger apartment in my building.
So, those are the things that I’ll focus on for the moment. We have 366 days left, and we’re going to be very busy.
Odorou, minna issho
sore ga jinsei da
odoreba kokoro ga
aruku harebare to
Elementary Graduation Shenanigans, Part II March 23, 2010
Posted by Earthdragonette in Cultural Exchange, Just Bizarre.Tags: elementary school, graduation week, Japan, late posts, lent anecdotes, winter term
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First of all, my apologies that this and the Weekend Recap are up later than I’d intended for them to be. I had a three-day weekend, and My Tricks lead me down the path to an all-out cooking marathon that started Friday and ended late Monday night.
I’ll leave the cooking anecdotes for another post, but in the meantime, let’s finish off the theme of Elementary School Graduations and recount a few tidbits from last Friday.
I am incredibly fond of the sixth year classes at both of my elementary schools, but I’m not going to lie – the class from Friday’s elementary school has a special place in my heart. These children, as I believe I have mentioned before, are just so incredibly LOUD AND ENTHUSIASTIC about everything and anything. At several points during my sojourn in this country, I have observed that these children are quite possibly the loudest children in Japan.
Still, this complete and utter disregard for vocal volume levels is one of their greatest charms, and it’s one of the reasons that I have been infatuated with them since around September of 2006. Given the intensity of my regard, it’s not surprising that I was really grateful for the opportunity to see them graduate.
Going to an elementary graduation ceremony was a little unusual for me. I work at the middle school that these sixth years are going to attend, and so their graduation wasn’t so much a “farewell” ceremony for me. This made things a little awkward, because any time that another teacher chose to share their grief with me, they would ultimately recall my (different) circumstances and that would become the focus of the conversation. On one hand, this focus was occasionally positive; I had more than one teacher ask me to keep an eye on the kids as they transitioned into the middle school. On the other hand, the elementary teachers are really going to miss this class, and so the thought of me continuing to work with them was a little … difficult.
Still, the teachers at Friday’s elementary school are wonderful, kind-hearted people. Once we made it through the ceremony and had a chance to calm our emotions, we were all able to come together and be proud of the students’ accomplishments.
There are two particular incidents from Friday that stand out in my mind. The first took place during the ceremony itself. After receiving his or her graduation diploma from the principal, each student then went to a podium and gave us a brief speech about what they were looking forward to in the future. Most of the students pledged to study hard and to do their best in their middle school clubs. Some students took the opportunity to tell us about their dreams for the far future.
I’m not sure how to relate the following without sounding as if I’m bragging, so I’ll just write what happened and assure you ahead of time that the tone I’m using is one of bemused pride and giddiness. Here you have it: out of twenty-one graduating students, thirteen of them said that they were looking forward to studying English in middle school. In addition to that, one student told us that she wants to be an English teacher when she grows up. In addition to that, no other subject was singled out in this fashion. Students either vowed to study hard in general or vowed to study hard in English.
My delight in this development was nothing short of pure joy. It brought a smile to my face that didn’t fade until well after I was home and tucked in bed for the evening. As I said in a recent post, I try not to focus too much on the “English teacher” part of my job, because it’s such a difficult task and there are still days when I don’t think that I’m very good at it. Yet, when I see the signs of having had success at this very task, I can’t help but be pleased.
So, that was the first golden memory of the day.
The second took place later on in the teacher’s room, sometime in the early afternoon. The students had already been sent home, and so all of the teachers were working on their own tasks. Around 3:30, everyone took a break so that they could have some cake that the sixth grade teacher brought in to celebrate the graduation.
It is no secret that I love cake. In particular, I love extremely dense, rich, and bitter chocolate cake. This is to say that I love the kind of cake that this teacher chose to bring in. Unfortunately, I love cake so much that it’s included in the List of Things I Give Up For Lent. I’m not a strict Catholic by any means, but I do try to observe major holidays and practices – Lent being one of them. Following Lent isn’t always easy to do in Japan, especially when you give up sweets and Lent takes place during graduation season. I’ve had to turn away a lot of cake this year, and each time has been wrought with difficulties.
The most stressful of these incidents took place last Thursday. To celebrate the graduation on Friday, every student in Thursday’s elementary school received a piece of strawberry shortcake with their lunch. My lunch tray is prepared in teacher’s room, and so I had to tell the lunch lady that I couldn’t eat the cake. I was hoping that she would quietly acknowledge my predicament and then give the extra cake to the graduating class (this is what happened at my middle school). Unfortunately, that was not what happened.
Instead, I got to enjoy this exchange:
Me: Excuse me, lunch lady? I’m so sorry, and I don’t mean to be rude, but I can’t eat the cake today.
Lunch Lady: Oh, you’re on a diet? (eyes me appraisingly)
Me: Ah, no. It’s something to do with my religion. I can’t eat sweets until the beginning of April. (This is a very simple way to explain my situation, but I figured that simplest is best.)
Lunch Lady: So, you’re on a diet.
Me: No… it’s a religious thing. A Christian thing. A Catholic thing.
Lunch Lady: Religious diet?
Me: No… no diet. Just religion.
Lunch Lady: But you’ve already lost a lot of weight. Surely you can eat it today.
Me: … … … Thank you. But this has nothing to do with my weight. It’s a religious choice. Can you please give the cake to the sixth year class? I don’t want it to go to waste.
Lunch Lady: If you don’t want anybody to see you eat the cake, why don’t you just take it home?
Me: … … … I can’t eat it at home. I can’t sweets until April.
Lunch Lady: Is that when you’ll go off your diet?
And so forth and so on. Eventually, it was only by invoking the frighteningly stern and foreboding aspects of my intensely religious father and grandmother (a white lie if there ever was one, but it served my purposes) that she finally backed off about my weight loss schemes. Unfortunately for me, whenever anybody in the teacher’s room asked why I wasn’t eating cake, she chose to tell them it was because I’m on a diet.
It’s incidents like this one that make me seriously question the idea that the world will ever know peace between all nations. I cannot, for the life of me, convince a lunch lady in the countryside of Japan that my abstinence from shortcake is rooted in religion and not a desire to slim my waist line. Yet, there are those who are striving to reconcile vastly divergent philosophies and schools of thought.
All I have to say to them is: “Good luck – you’re going to need it. In the meantime, I’m going to keep working on my shortcake situation.”
Anyway, I seem to have run off on a rather substantial tangent. Returning to our story, we were at the moment when the teachers at Friday’s elementary school were dividing up the cake into sixteen pieces – one for each of us. I was thus faced with the following dilemma: Do I hold fast to my vows of Lent and risk the curse of Unshakeable Preconceived Diet Notions, or do I eat the cake and try not to feel as though I’ve let myself down?
Sighing heavily, I chose Lent and braced myself for the onslaught of weight-related queries.
And to my delight, found none. Not a single one.
Unlike what took place at Thursday’s school, the teachers at Friday’s school actually listened to what I had to say and they were fascinated by the idea. Fasting and abstinence are not unheard of in the East, but I don’t suspect that my coworkers at Friday’s school have had many opportunities to interact with the Christian practice. They were polite, curious, and very respectful. The vice principal was so sensitive about eating the cake in front of me, that he took it upon himself to describe the taste to me. This eventually morphed into an intensely thorough critique of the cake, which left the sixth grade teacher bemused. I commented that the whole scenario reminded me of Iron Chef, and was thus rewarded with a room full of laughter.
And so, as far as shenanigans go, I do believe that I did well for myself on Friday.
And you wonder will I leave [my country], but how?
I cross over borders but I’m still there now
In a parallel universe, I update my blog every day. Part II. November 15, 2009
Posted by Earthdragonette in Apologies, Julie Gets Philosophical, Just Bizarre, Lessons Learned, Student Moments.Tags: Aunt Mia, culture festival, dancing, elementary students, fall term, fievel, Japan, Japanese, Jyona33, karaoke, late posts, meetings, mochi, my little monkey, old middle school, Rocko, The Mentor, thursday elementary school, Two Terrific Teachers
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I hope you took the opportunity to stretch your legs, get a beverage, grab a snack, let the dog (or cat) out during our break.
Now, back to my attempts to end Rampant Procrastination.
#11: I Guess I Like Attention?
I do write a blog (kind of…) after all. In fact, I think that liking attention is a requirement if one wants to be a teacher. Those who feel unnerved by many sets of curious eyes on their person, seeking wisdom, answers, and snark need not apply. That sort of thing.
So, given this personality quirk that I have, it makes sense that I would want to find a way to participate in the middle school culture festival, which I did by dancing during a very brief talent show segment. The schedule for the festival went thusly:
9:00: Opening Ceremony
~ Performance from the elective music classes (students performed on traditional Japanese instruments)
~ Speeches from 10 students about a variety of topics
~ Presentation from the student health committee on drug abuse
~ Presentation from each grade
~ First years: 20 second speeches about their first year in middle school
~ Second years: small play about an activity they’ll be doing this month (For two days, they’re going to go out and work in a variety of the town’s businesses. They’ll work in everything ranging from restaurants to hospitals to gas stations.)
~ Third years: presentation about their trip to Tokyo last April
~ Lunch break (At about 11:15)
~ Huge BINGO Game
~ 1:00: Talent show (which included my dance)
~ Afternoon chorus competition between the different classes
~ Special Guest: Traditional Japanese storyteller
~ 3:30: Closing Ceremony
And that was pretty much it. I wandered around for most of the day, taking pictures and talking to students and their families. My dance was something I’d put together myself, set to Chris Brown’s Forever. I think it went quite well – the kids certainly had fun with it.
#12: Reasons that I love karaoke
I’m not the best of singers, but I do like to do it. Unfortunately, I’ve found more often than not that karaoke in the States is a very public, very embarrassing, and often very unpleasant experience. The Japanese karaoke experience is totally different, especially if you go to a karaoke establishment. You get your own room, your own television/stereo equipment, and you can use a phone in the room to order a variety of refreshments. Jyona33 and I probably owe the success of our friendship to Disney duets and Bonnie Tyler.
Recently, I went out with Rocko, and I’ll go ahead and let you know that the boy has game. He can rap. Seriously. I will admit to my superiority on Sir Mix-A-Lot’s Baby Got Back, but that’s about it. For the real deal, you need to hook up with 50cent, Eminem, and Rocko.
#13: The growing dichotomy that is my life
This isn’t a specific moment exactly, but rather a growing feeling I’ve had over the last month. Put very simply: I go to work and immerse myself in whatever school I happen to be in. I play around with my students, discuss a variety of topics with the teachers, go to planning meetings and training seminars, have dinner with friends on weekends, dance my heart out on Wednesdays and Sundays, and sometimes speak coherent and intelligent Japanese.
I also spend hours talking to friends on Skype, read Anna Karenina, memorize Shakespeare (because everybody should), stalk Jay Sean’s new singles, and have dreams of somehow marrying Stephen Colbert.
Sometimes, I’m not exactly sure which country I’m living in, or which world for that matter.
#14: Visiting old friends… my second culture festival
I’ve talked on occasion about The Middle School That Closed. Earlier this month, my town’s new middle school (the one that resulted from the merger of the three that closed) had their first culture festival. I wanted to see my old students, so I decided to attend. I didn’t stay for very long – just long enough to see their morning speeches and performances. They also had their chorus competition in the morning, and that was very cute. Aunt Mia was present, and she and I had the chance to talk a little before she had to run off. I still predict that she is somehow going to end up godmother to my children.
#15: And The Flu shall have no dominion (over me)…
Although it’s everywhere. My schools have been cancelling classes left and right and it’s been weeks since all of the grades have been present at the same time. Two weeks ago all of my third year JHS students were sent home for the week (14 had the flu) and then last week my second years were shut out (10 cases there). It’s the second time this year that my second years have had this happen to them. The teachers are really stressed because everyone is behind in their lessons, but the students are obviously enjoying all of this vacation time.
So far, by some miracle, I’ve managed to stay healthy. I had a scare two weeks ago, because I started to feel out of sorts. I’m not exactly sure what it was, but it passed by without making too much of a fuss, and I’ve remained well enough to venture into the wild and germy frontier. I still predict that I’m going to get Swine Flu.
#16: Fievel VS The Monkey, Part 2
I think it was on the 5th of November that I saw Fievel make an actual claim on me in front of The Monkey. It really stands out in my memory, though, because it just showed how feisty my previously silent one is becoming.
The students had to leave school early because of a big meeting that the teachers were preparing for. I had my work more or less under control, and so I spent some time with the kids while they were waiting for the last bus of the day. Fievel decided to assert his newfound power over me and asked me to give him a piggyback ride. The Monkey saw this, got jealous, and tried to interrupt the whole process.
I kid you not – as soon as The Monkey tried to block Fievel and climb on my back, Fievel looked at him and said (quite clearly and without any hesitation whatsoever): “NO. MONKEY DOWN!”
Success! English has been acquired!!!
#17: Playing With The Big Kids
On November 6th, my Thursday elementary school had a huge meeting that most of the teachers in my district were invited to attend. All of the teachers were required to have open lessons, which were then followed by a lecture from the 5th and 6th grade teachers. After a small break, everyone broke up into smaller groups to ask the home room teachers questions about their lessons.
Although I don’t always understand everything that’s said at these functions, I like to go because, well, it’s an opportunity to learn more about teaching theory (which is where I am admittedly pretty weak). For the open lesson and small meeting portions, I stuck close to The Mentor, since I find his lessons to be consistently well planned and executed.
Overall, I really enjoyed the meeting. I also enjoyed the Celebrity Effect, because a lot of people were not expecting me to be there, and I got to see my presence distract them from their own lives (if only momentarily). I found the overall theme of the meeting to be extremely interesting. It focused on a teaching model by which students are encouraged to approach problems individually, and then through their own efforts and discussion with their classmates, broaden and deepen their knowledge of the given subject. The open lessons were supposed to be examples of this model in action, and then the last meetings of the days were opportunities for other educators to respond to the model and to the way that the school is trying to implement it.
It’s a little frustrating for me, because there are so many things that I wish I could ask or discuss with my fellow teachers, but that kind of Japanese is still out of my reach. Still, I think that I benefitted from attending the meeting. I particularly enjoyed sitting next to one of the Two Terrific Teachers and being his comment partner through the last meeting. Do not be fooled – Japanese people are polite, but snark exists in this culture and it is alive and well. ^o^
#18: If you haven’t ever made sweet potato, tofu, and coconut milk curry…
…then you should, because it is delicious. It is so delicious that it actually qualifies as a memory from this fall season. I make it once a week, eat it for two or three days, and enjoy a slice of nirvana. When I look back on Autumn of 2009, I will most assuredly recall sweet potato and coconut milk curry.
#19: It’s Sunday – let’s go to a festival!
My third festival of the year was at my Friday elementary school. The schedule for this festival was a little different from the one that my middle school had:
~9:00, opening ceremony
~ Fun Corner (1 hour)
~ Mochi Making Event
~ Lunch and Recess
~ Fun Corner #2 (40 minutes)
~ Closing ceremony (at about 2:00)
The Fun Corners were a series of stations set up around the school that the students went to. There was a jump rope station, a juggling station, a station for playing with traditional Japanese toys (kendama and spinning tops), a station for origami, and one for wood crafting. I spent a lot of my time with the origami corner, where my superior motor skills were invaluable to the first and second year students. I had a very odd moment where I looked around and realized that I (the American) was actually leading Japanese school children through the origami process. I suppose that sometimes, authority figures are authority figures regardless of nationality.
(Also, just to squeeze this in here: mochi is a rice cake that’s made by pounding down a special kind of cooked rice. By itself it doesn’t have much of a taste, but it’s often eaten with special soy powder, fruit, or red bean paste. Fresh mochi is a gift from the gods, and I’m so happy that I have an elementary school where they make it once a year.)
#20: Did I say this before? Sometimes I am not very smart.
I’ve asked my Thursday elementary school if I can dance at their culture festival. I’ve yet to hear back from them, but I hope that they’re willing to indulge me as I really want to contribute something to the day. Besides, it gives me an excuse to make up a new dance routine.
Monkey Up! October 18, 2009
Posted by Earthdragonette in Apologies, Dance Troupe, Julie Gets Philosophical, Just Bizarre, sports festival, Student Moments.Tags: dance practice, Dance Troupe, elementary students, fall term, festivals, field trips, fievel, hannah montana, Japan, Japanese, late posts, old middle school, Rocko, sports festival, The Savant, typhoon
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The blog! It’s alive!
IT’S ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!
So, hello and welcome again after 12 days of Silence. Since I last posted, we’ve enjoyed the following:
~ A swine flu outbreak in my middle school that shut us down for an entire week
~ A typhoon
~ A field trip to The Ghetto Version of Epcot (Still fun, though!)
~ Not one, but two nearly three hour dance practices
~ My first and second festivals dancing with the troupe
~ Intense Apartment Cleaning
It’s kind of funny, because I have the beginnings of ten posts in my drafts folder. I really was trying to get caught up, but Life is a Finicky Creature and I just couldn’t pull things together before it became demanding and I was forced to abandon my efforts to take it for a walk.
For the moment, however, I’ve managed to distract Life for a while, and it’s off in the corner gnawing on its chew toy. It’s going to want play again in around an hour, but until then my friends, it’s just you and me.
I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to go about getting us all caught up. I hesitate to go into long, drawn out Paragraphs About My Life, because I really want to keep the blog from becoming bogged down by my every day activities (which really are very ordinary). So, what I think we’ll do, is stay true to form. This blog is about Collecting Memories, as it were, and we seem to be lacking twelve of them.
So, I hereby present to you twelve memories from the past twelve days!
(In no specific or meaningful order. I’m just writing them as I recall them.)
1) Monkey Up!
The title of today’s post, and most definitely deserving of some Context.
You may perhaps recall the character that I’ve named My Little Monkey. He’s loud, he’s persistent, and he’s convinced that I am a jungle gym.
Well, recently (I think he started this around October 7th), his new thing is to use English to tell me what he wants. Specifically, if he wants a piggyback ride then he says to me, “Julie! Monkey up!” He then attaches himself to my back for, oh, I don’t know – 20 minutes or so? During that time, his favorite thing to do is rest his head on my shoulder and mock the other children who come to talk to me in English. On one hand, it’s kind of rude and ever so slightly obnoxious, but on the other hand, it’s pretty funny and he ends up learning a lot of new English as a result. Anyway, as soon as we’ve had enough of Learning, he taps me on the shoulder and says, “Julie! Monkey down!” and then goes about his business. This has been entertaining me for the last twelve days.
2) Why yes, there was a typhoon
I live in the mountains, so I don’t tend to get all that worried whenever a typhoon heads toward my village. I grew up in Florida, and so I have a Fondness for storms. Whenever one approaches (preferably with Lots of Thunder and Lightening) I buckle down and enjoy the tangible feeling of Mother Nature’s Snark. On this particular occasion, my town was worried because it looked like we were going to be hit directly. So, I got to leave work early on Wednesday. I stocked up on some non-perishables and liquids, put up my storm windows, and snuggled with a blanket in front of the computer. At some point, Rocko called me, and we celebrated the storm via Skype. Isn’t technology wonderful??
3) And swine flu as well
So, this started on October 6th. I walked into school and over the course of the morning we discovered that five of the second years were at home with The Flu of Satan. By the end of the day, the entire second year class had been sent home, and then by the end of Wednesday, the first and third year classes were gone as well. All three classes resumed their normal schedule last Tuesday (Monday was a holiday), but we still have some kids out. I am convinced that I’m going to get this disease, since it’s at the elementary schools as well and thus I’m exposed to it every single day of the week. In addition, most of these children getting sick are the ones who enjoy climbing on my back.
Oh, well. It’s nice to go into the holiday season contemplating illness.
4) Field trips are fun
After postponing the fall field trip on account of Rampant Absences and Typhoon, we finally had our chance to go out and about last Wednesday. I went with the first years to Little World, a small theme park outside of Nagoya that really does aspire to be some kind of Epcot Center. It’s essentially a 2.5km circular road with small areas scattered around it that are dedicated to various countries. Some areas are more elaborate than others, but generally each area has a building, store, and/or restaurant associated with a given nation. Last Wednesday marked my third trip to Little World, and my game plan was simple: walk into the park, dash to Germany, find a bench, and read Anna Karenina while waving to my students as they wandered by.
Unfortunately, I didn’t plan on Hannah Montana and Co. They kidnapped me as soon as we got into the park and through a series of tricky and devious acts, convinced me to walk around with them the entire day. So much for Russian literature.
Still, I got to eat a taco, some pizza, and some gelato, and that was exciting. I also picked up not-easily-obtainable foreign food, and I enjoyed that, too. At one point, Hannah Montana stole my iPod and spent about half an hour examining the R&B list. I think I might be on the road to getting her away from Sugary Pop Music. We can only hope.
5) The Savant likes to break things
We haven’t mentioned him in a while, but he is still among us – causing trouble and asserting that He “MUST MAKE PEOPLE HAPPY.” Recently, his cleaning group has moved to a set of bathrooms on the first floor of the school, and they are as unproductive as (if not moreso than) they were when they were supposed to be cleaning outside. I try to stay away from them at least 2/3 of the time, though, because as soon as I show up it looks like I’m to blame for them not actually cleaning what they’ve been assigned to clean.
The first day that I went to hang out clean with them, The Savant got it into his head that he needed to use a wooden broom to show me how great his batting form is. What he didn’t count on was the broom being kind of weak – it snapped into two pieces the moment he swung it through the air. We spent about ten minutes arguing as to whether or not he should fess up to the Vice Principal:
Me: No, I will not tell him for you.
The Savant: BUT I’M PERFECT. YOU MUST.
Me: You broke the broom
The Savant: NO.
Me: Uh, yes?
The Savant: NO
Me: Uh, yes?
The Savant: Maybe, Julie, YOU broke the broom!
Me: Oh, don’t even think about going there.
And so forth and so on. Eventually, he was persuaded to To the Right Thing, and he was only mildly chastised for his mischief. I thought the whole thing was hilarious.
6) and 7) It’s a good thing I like dancing
Because it seems to be the main thing I’ve been doing recently. We had our practice canceled on the night of October 7th because of the typhoon, but we rescheduled it for the following Sunday so that we could get our routine down before Monday’s festival. The festival was in a town (city? kind of a city? a very small city?) about an hour to the south of us, and although not very large, it was definitely very cute. I had my debut there, and overall I think that things went well. I’m definitely a Curious Item, being a Foreigner and thus a Celebrity, but it seems to be a good thing for the group, so I’m glad I can help.
So we’ll dedicate one memory to Sunday’s and Wednesday’s practices, because both really are a blur in my mind. They both lasted almost three hours and I thought I was going to die by the time that I got home. Still, because last Wednesday’s practice took place after my official welcome, I noticed that the mood was significantly warmer towards me (not that it was ever cold). I actually feel as though I’m a part of the team now, and I really enjoy that.
The second memory we’ll dedicate to the two festivals, as they were both part of My Dancing Debut. Last Monday’s was my General Debut and then today’s festival was my Town Debut. Last Monday’s was fun, but today’s was significantly more personal. My students were super excited to see me dancing, and I had a lot of them come up afterwards and drag me around the festival to see their favorite foods or to meet their parents.
Also present, to my delight and entertainment, were a large number of The Really Horrible Third Year Class from three years ago. They were also amused to see me and tried to say horrible, mocking things about my dancing. What they didn’t count on was that I can actually understand their Japanese now, and I snarked back at them in not one, but two languages. I think we both enjoyed that, and it entertains me that they still have an interest in crossing swords with me. I told them point blank that they were horrible children (except for the girls), and I think that won me points. We spent a great deal of time together.
8) Rocko indulges my whimsical notions
Two Fridays ago (so, right after the typhoon), Rocko invited me to his neck of the woods for homemade curry and so that we could investigate this international bar that he’d discovered. I’m torn about this experience, because there are two memories that I really like from it. The first was just the conversation that we had – Rocko is a very interesting person to talk to. He’s really good about listening to other people’s opinions as well as clearly explaining his own perspective.
The second memory (which is more in line with the way that I’ve titled this section), happened the following day. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and I had a fanatical desire to find a swing set. Although we had to walk twenty minutes, Rocko managed to produce one for me and I got to be five years old again. ^___^
9) A new character! Introducing: Fievel
If you’re familiar with the movie An American Tale, then you will also be familiar with Fievel, the main character. He’s a shy, mischievous mouse and through the course of the movie he becomes brave and self sufficient. This is a lot like one of my students at my Thursday elementary school, and one of my New Favorite People on This Earth.
This student is currently a third grader, but I really only noticed him last April, when his class started the “Talk to Julie and Get Stickers and Eventually Prizes” program. He is one of the smallest, sweetest looking children I’ve ever met, and last April he was also Painfully Shy. I could tell that he wanted to talk to me, but it was very difficult, and he always spoke in a very soft, hesitant voice.
Still, despite the shyness, over the last six months, he has been without question the most consistent elementary school student in my Sticker Program. Every week, without fail, he writes me a very short (but cute) letter, and he always, ALWAYS comes to talk to me during breaks.
I think it was about two months ago that we saw a huge change in our interactions. He suddenly became a lot more outgoing, and after I spent some time with him and his family at the Sports Festival in September, he became almost as much of a companion as My Little Monkey. It is not unusual to see me walking around that school with both of them firmly planted in My Personal Circle of Space. He is actually more polite and English-inclined than the Monkey, and he takes conversations a lot more seriously. Recently, Fievel’s brother has started to hang around me a lot, too, and it’s funny to watch them to compete for stickers during recess.
10) Fall is the time to read Anna Karenina
Well, fall or summer…
I first read Anna Karenina the summer before my senior year at St. John’s. This was done while also reading War and Peace, so you could definitely say that the summer of 2005 was the Summer of Tolstoi. Of the two, I infinitely prefer Anna Karenina, and I’m now reading it for the fourth time. The second time was in the fall of 2007, the third was the fall of 2008, and seeing as now is currently fall of 2009, you can kind of see where this is becoming a tradition.
When I read through the novel the first time, it was done as part of a study group with a tutor at St. John’s. I remember that he once made the remark that if people would read Anna Karenina when they encountered relationship problems, then they probably wouldn’t need to go to a counselor. To a large extent I agree with him about this – Anna Karenina is fantastic for portraying a wide range of characters in extremely common and accessible situations. There are themes of love, lust, betrayal, adultery, reconciliation, forgiveness, mercy, revenge, and wrath. I am as dazzled by the novel’s structure as I am by the characters, and I inevitably find something new to appreciate each time that I go through it.
I could go on about this for quite some time, but we’ll go ahead and leave it at that for now. Just know that my daily ritual has now shifted to accomodate this monster of a book, and that it makes me very, very happy.
11) Fall is also the time to Make Things
Specifically, I’m talking about food, although I’ve been knitting (poorly…) again as well. Recently made dishes include:
~ tofu/spinach/mushroom casserole
~ whole wheat focaccia bread
~ chicken soup from scratch
~ adzuki/pumpkin stew
~ sweet potatoes in a variety of dishes including curry, casserole, and root stew
~ apple pie – dear God, apple pie
12) No More Sports Days! (Along with subsequent thoughts and reflections.)
Ah, yes. So, something that has not been happening over the last twelve days has been Sports Festivals! We are in fact done with them for the year. As I have said before, I am also probably done with them For Good.
It’s unfortunate that I never was able to get around to writing the big Sports Festival-centered post. I’d wanted to take the opportunity to explain more about them, and to muse a bit about the role that this festival has played in my life in Japan.
I’ve been to fourteen … maybe fifteen … of these festivals since I arrived here in 2006. Each year has been a different sort of trial by fire. The first year I was simply trying to wrap my mind around the concept of a sports festival, and I was trying to find a way to participate and make it an event that was relevant to my life. The second year I was able to appreciate individual student achievement, and I was less shy about entering PTA events since I understood how the majority of the events were run. The big challenge last year was trying to learn how to sprint so that I wouldn’t embarrass myself in a relay race that I ran at my other middle school (the one that closed down). I also started a tradition last year where I brought handmade rice balls in for the faculty and staff on the mornings before the festival started.
This year’s overall theme seemed to be: Let’s Embarrass Julie As Much As Humanly Possible And Them Some. From the bizarre relay race that I ran with my sixth years at the middle school festival, to a really unfortunate partnered relay race that I had to run at the Thursday elementary school’s festival (I was injured in this race because of what I had to do), to the absolutely disastrous centipede race that I ran at the Friday elementary school’s festival (my group fell twice), I did not manage to display myself as quite the athlete that I feel I have the potential to be. -_-;;
Still, if I’ve learned anything over the last three years, it’s that the people in my community appreciate valiant efforts as much as (if not more than) successful efforts, and I know that it meant a lot to them that I wanted to participate. So, in the end, everyone won – including me. I think what’s also nice about this situation is that it is another indication of how I have become accepted in this community. I don’t feel as though they were laughing at me during these events. The truth is that all of the participants looked ridiculous, and so it was a celebration of, well, our collective absurdity. I did it for my students, because I knew that they wanted to see me perform on the field in the same way that they’d been performing. It was us coming together to celebrate each other as a community.
Don’t get me wrong, I still hate that centipede race. With a passion.
But, it’s part of the Sports Festival experience, and I can recognize that. Sometimes, you do things just because it really is the right thing to do. This year more than any other, I believe I’ve learned that lesson. This is a good thing, and it’s a fitting way to end this chapter of my life in Japan.
289 days to go.
Recovery and Plotting September 27, 2009
Posted by Earthdragonette in Apologies, sports festival.Tags: fall term, late posts, sports festival, suffering
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Am currently recovering from Saturday’s torture sports festival, and am also Up To Tricks. Elaborations and Recaps are forthcoming, but will have to wait until (hopefully?) this evening.
In the meantime, I give you this – a picture of Saturday’s torture device.
Do not be fooled by its commonplace appearance. It is an instrument of suffering.
TORTURE
What we were afraid of… September 9, 2009
Posted by Earthdragonette in Apologies.Tags: fall term, late posts, Mary Sunshine, The Awesome Vice Principal, The Savant
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Which is to say, that this is the kind of week that I feared would be detrimental to The Blog. I’ve been working on drafts of posts (I have about four of them saved in rugged, half-conceived forms), but there just hasn’t been time to complete them. The issue, this week, is that I have my middle school sports festival this Saturday, and so my work schedule has been really mixed up. I’ve had to do a lot of preparations in the evening and, not surprisingly, making worksheets for elementary school = No Time for Blog.
But I shall persevere! My hope is to be productive today before I come home so that I can try to get the rest of these back posts up and running so that I don’t feel that this week has defeated me. ^o^ There have been some rather interesting things afoot that I would like to share. The Savant, in particular, has been entertaining. I’ve spent the entire week tormenting him by saying that I spoke to God the other day and He said that He likes me more. (The Savant is my best English speaker, but I’m trying to get him to use more complicated grammatical structures, such as comparatives and superlatives.) I upped the ante yesterday by saying that the devil also finds me to be more interesting. The Savant has heard my challenge, and is now in a state of perpetual English contemplation, searching for the moment where he can take his revenge.
Mary Sunshine continues to mark cleaning time with water fights. I’m going to have to come up with a new explanation as to why we can’t seem to get that hose to stop malfunctioning, or find someplace new to clean. The Awesome Vice Principal, while awesome, is not stupid. Clearly, mischief is afoot.
Where I Intended to Be 