Wondering While Wandering: March 2005

Parents

My parents came to Japan for about 2 weeks. It was really great to see them and have them experience my life. I am glad they got to see that I am alright here, well taken care of etc. They did really well with the culture and the food. I was most worried about food, toilets and sitting on the ground. They ate sushi, had an enkai with my coworkers, came to school and experienced all things Tamagawa/Yamaguchi ken. Dad really got into sumo while he was here. There was a big tournament going on in Osaka.

On their last weekend here we went to Hiroshima. They visited the Peace Park and museum while I shopped. Then we met up and did some more shopping. The following day we went to Miyajima, an island near Hiroshima. We got off the boat and were immediately mauled by deer. We visited a few shrines and enjoyed the sights of the island. I recommend taking parents (or friends) there, it is a nice tourist trap that will give them a chance to see old structures. Then we got back on the boat and headed back to Hiroshima.

Overall it was really good to see them. My house feels empty without their 10 suitcases and airmattress, that my dad insisted on bringing. No futons for him. Thanks for coming, Mom and Dad

sunbathing squid

yum, natto

Everyone dancing.

Sean's friend for the night.

The hostess bar, Rebecca

sing sing sing

At Ayumi hostess bar with Sean

yamaguchi pagoda and plum blossoms

meditation

paintings done by a monk

Offerings at the shrine

Shrine on Miyajima

Floating temple on Miyajima

The torii at Miyajima

Making friends with a deer

Dad at the Horunfells

Mom and Dad at the camelia festival

Dad feeding the tombi at Kasayama

Ellen's b-day party

graduation

Natural Disasters

My parents are now in Japan. It is really wierd being with them, but very good. I picked them up in Fukuoka and we spent Saturday shopping around. My dad is pointing out everything that strikes him as different and unusual. He is a very patriotic man. I was a little worried how they would handle the Japanese food but their first meal of yakiniku was a success. We have been eating lot of western food just because I haven't had it in ages. Sunday we went to Costco on the way home. I was standing by the bakery section when the floor started to shake. I was thinking 'what the heck is going on in the bakery?' when I realized it was an earthquake. The whole building was shaking. I immediately looked above me to see what could potentially fall on me and saw the whole ceiling shake. I think it lasted about 30 seconds (that felt like 5 minutes). The store was fine and we were fine but a little shook up so we left. We headed to the expressway only to find out that it was closed. We had to drive route 3 the whole way home. A 3 hour journey took us 7 hours to get home. It was awful, tons of traffic and through cities the whole way. I am a little apprehensive to go to Nagasaki this coming weekend. Hope everyone in Japan that is reading this was OK during the quake.

Preconceived Notions

Before coming to Japan I had myself convinced that Japanese students are going to be a lot more behaved than American students. This is where I was totally wrong. Over the months you have read my stories of students swearing at me, saying nasty things and generally misbehaving in class. Yesterday was the pinnacle of such terrible behavior.

There are about 3 or 4 exceptionally bad students in school and you get used to their antics. Don’t get me wrong, most of the students are nice, funny, quiet and well-behaved as you may expect. I guess every country has their murderers, robbers, and gunmen chasing cops. Takuma would be in that last category. He sleeps in class, hisses and grunts at me. The worst part is, is that he is very intelligent, just lazy and mean.

During lunch I started to hear a commotion. Takuma was yelling and throwing chairs and tables. He looked as though he was about the beat up one of the teachers. A woman, might I add. Due to lack of Japanese, I had no clue what he was saying. It took 5 teachers to restrain him and get him out of the lunch room.

I asked the teacher that he was threatening what had happened. She said yesterday he stabbed another student’s milk and orange with a letter opener. She told him not to do it again and apparently he didn’t like this suggestion. She said that she likes him and he is a smart kid but he plays too many violent video games. I asked her what his parents are like and she said they are bad. So, as you can see, not all Japanese children and well-behaved.

The Birthday Remix

Most birthday cards in Japan have a sound mechanism that plays ‘Happy Birthday to You’ when you push a button. They are cute and nice and you unique of course, except when the song haunts you. I returned home from school one day to the sounds of the ‘Happy Birthday’ song beeping throughout my house. I looked every where for the source of this song. I looked in folders, closets, and outside only to find the noise was coming from the garbage. The burnable garbage to be precise. I started my quest to find the card and shut it up. I dug through chicken skins, banana peels, ice cream cartons and salad remains. I held garbage up to my ear to try to figure out where the card was. After about 5 minutes I gave up. My hands were sticky and smelly and the noise was driving me crazy. I finally decided to solve the problem by taking the trash out.

I took the trash out on a Tuesday evening. I figured the battery would die and I would be rid of the ‘Happy Birthday’ song. I was wrong. I woke up the next morning to the twinkle beeping of ‘…Happy Birthday Dear Sarah, Happy Birthday to you…’ Wednesday I went to school hoping the battery would die. After school I returned home and it was still singing loud and proud. Then I went out for the evening Wednesday night. There is no stopping this singing card. Finally, I woke on Thursday morning to the ‘Happy Birthday’ song and it is trash day. I proudly put my garbage can on the stoop to no longer listen to the joyful song. (PS…to you people living in Japan, I just accidentally spelled Joyful with 2 L’s…) Now I am only hoping the garbage man will take away the singing card and not think “The Happy Birthday song isn’t burnable gomi (trash)”.

Laziness

Weekend update. Friday Chris and I went to Bacco. Our favorite restaurant, with our favorite Japanese person as the chef. Kengo is awesome because he actually talks to us about things that are relevant rather than just asking what we eat for breakfast or where in Japan we have been. Saturday was 3 nensei graduation. They treat this as though it is high school graduation. The ceremony lasted about 3 hours of which I understood almost nothing. I have to say I am improving a bit because I could kind of get the gist of what they were saying. I can pick out words here and there a little better. So at about 12:15 I left not because they told me it was ok, but because I was not told what was happening next so I felt the need to leave. I hate being uninformed all the time. Saturday night was Ellen's 30th birthday party. Fully equipped with amazing food, great friends, hilarious conversation, Kat's crazy games, and of course chocolate fondue. Happy Birthday Ellen! Sunday, Bren and Chris came over for dinner and the longest Sex and the City watching marathon of my life. We watched all of season 6 between Sunday and Monday. No school on Monday... So that is the weekend. Hope yours was good too.

Spring is right around the corner

I say this because for the past few weeks my friends and I have been doing things that you would only expect to do in the spring. Mainly we have gone on a few hikes, walks and bike rides. This weekend in Hagi was the Tsubaki Matsuri or Camelia festival. After an extremely snowy drive through the mountains of Kano (where I got in a small car accident that could have been a lot worse than it really was) we headed to Mt. Kasayama. We arrived at around 3:30 only to find out it had ended. We continued to walk around the park and enjoy the camelias and natsu mikan growing on surrounding trees. It was a beautiful walk and day. My friend Dave from Matsuyama was in so it was nice to show him the true inaka (rural) of Yamaguchi.

This winter has confused me a little bit. It is no where near as cold as Ohio and no where near as snowy but for some reason it feels never ending. Maybe it is because we don't have central heating in our homes. Each time we return home we must fire up our kerosene heaters in order for it to be bearable. Only to wake up the next morning to an icy house and seeing your breath indoors. Showers are the worst. Try getting naked in the same temperatures as the outdoors, EVERYDAY. Worst of all I recently have a bit of frost bite on my feet. I have heard it is very common, in fact Bren has had it as well. It leaves your toes red, swollen, ichy and painful. Putting on your shoes feels like your toes are covered with bruises. It is nothing serious, just an annoyance of Japanese winter. It sure feels never ending.

But for now I will stop my ranting and look out the window on this 50 degree day. It is beautiful but I sit here breathing in the kerosene fumes of the stove that my office feels obligated to use on this gorgeous day.