Tuesday, September 27, 2005

A short update

I have been in Japan for a little over two months, and I have been teaching for about one month. I have taught my self-introduction lesson 23 times now, and I only have to do it three more times. I am extremely borred of my lesson, and I feel sorry for the teachers who have had to translate it multiple times and pretended to be impressed or surprised every time.

Last week we had national holidays on Monday and Friday, and I also had Tuesday off because our sports day was last Saturday (I will write and post photos about that eventually). I finally went to Osaka for the first time, which is a marvelous city indeed. This past weekend I went to two BBQ's and went shopping in Kobe twice (mostly window shopping).

Last Thursday, someone from the National phone company came to my house to check the wiring and everything went fine. I think that means I will get the internet in my house eventually. I purchased an iSight camera at the Apple Store in Osaka, so once I get the internet I can start video-chatting with people.

On Saturday, Oct. 1, I will be going to Guam and returning on Monay, Oct. 3. My friend, Masa, from church is taking me and his family there with frequent flyer miles. I believe it is his fourth trip to Guam. So I will get to have all of the American stuff that I have barely missed. Hopefully, we will get some sun and do some snorkeling too.

Just before writing this post, I broke up my first fight in Japan. I saw some rough-housing as I came down the stairs, but soon realized one of the group was getting bullied by the rest. I walked up and stepped inbetween them and exclaimed, "Nan de a ne?" which is a local phrase meaning something to the effect of "What's with that?" The boys laughed at my use of their dialect and soon began talking about my hair and beard and giving me high fives. I asked the kid who was picked on if he was alright, and he ran off before he would have cried. I didn't really no what to do as I don't know why they were fighting, I couldn't ask them why, I couldn't read their name tags, and I don't know their faces well enough to point them out again. I guess I'll ask the vice-principal about it sometime.

A few people have pointed out that comments are down. I think it's fixed, but you will not be able to comment on old posts. So comment on the new posts, and say a prayer that I will soon have internet so the prose and photos flow.

posted by Benjamin ベンジャミン @ 3:37 PM   2 comments

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Arm-wrestling in Japan?

Every day this month there has been time in the afternoon set aside as practice for the sports festival September 17. At first, teachers translated it as “sports day” and I thought of field day in Jr. High and High School back home. Translating it as “sports festival” makes much more sense. Saturday will be an all-day event. The girls have learned choreographed dances; the boys get in human pyramids, have mass games of “chicken” where they try to knock each other off each other’s shoulders; everyone is doing chants, and then there were all the regular group games typical of a field day.

The practices had been getting longer and longer everyday and there was actually one day last week set aside entirely for practice.

During sports festival practice Monday, a large crowd of boys gathered to try to learn some English, and I soon was speaking broken Japanese and learning and teaching new words. At some point in the hanging out, one of the boys said that another one was the strongest boy in school. One thing led to another and I found myself arm-wrestling one of my students. I am sure I am much stronger than he, but the Japanese are tricky at arm-wrestling. They throw (sometimes literally) their whole bodies into it. At first, I was going American style, by the book, but soon I had to imitate the body-leaning Japanese-style to beat him in not too much time.

After winning, I was faced with the second strongest kid. Then one of my English teachers went and found the third-strongest. He was a lefty but so am I, so it was no problem. Then they got the fattest kid which worried me for a moment, but he was the weakest of the four. I was totally exhausted at this point when my English teacher went and got one of the younger teachers for me to arm wrestle. He did the craziest full-body, angled-arm lean that beat me in 5 seconds. I asked to go again and lasted about 10 seconds the second time. I am sure he is a bit stronger than me, but it was all technique that allowed me to lose so quickly. I hope that was the last of arm-wrestling students. They were very impressed and said I was “very macho”. After I lost to the teacher, they said he was the strongest guy in school. I proposed I was the second strongest, but then they said Okuno-sensei was probably stronger (he is the omnipotent head gym teacher). I agreed and then asked if I was third strongest. We were sitting with the principal and they insisted he had to be in the top three, although I would never even think about arm-wrestling the principal. So I finally proposed I was the fourth strongest guy in school, and they laughed and seemed quite pleased at that.

Prior to Japan I have probably arm-wrestled only a few times in the past six years of my life. In the past six weeks I have already arm-wrestled eight people (five on Monday, two at a new JET party a few weeks ago, and one at karaoke two weekends ago). I am 7/8 which is a good start, although I was bigger than most of my opponents. I think I am going to get ripped at the gym and then become an arm-wrestling champion in Japan. The most important thing though is learning their crazy arm-twisting/body-leaning/ against-the-American-rules-technique.

posted by Benjamin ベンジャミン @ 8:29 AM  

Monday, September 05, 2005

Before I get any more frantic emails...

Last Tuesday, I worked all morning to update my blog. I had several long entries from the past couple of weeks, and quite a few photos that I had preparred to upload. After working on uploading all of this new information for a while, I proceeded to attempt to change the settings on my blog. After doing so, I clicked what I thought was the "save settings" button but turned out to be the "delete this blog" button on the Japanese browser. I think there was a rather inconspicuous "do you want to permanently delete this blog" box that popped up, but since it was in Japanese also I unknowingly clicked away.

The Blogger people have yet to contact me after a week, so I am assuming the last eight months of archives are gone. I, in the spirit of American perseverance during hard times, will get past the loss of my creative properties and continue documenting the extraodinary journey of the Chicago Man in Japan.

I should shortly post several of the most recent entries and photos that I was trying to post last week. They will appear below shortly if they are not already posted.

posted by Benjamin ベンジャミン @ 11:08 AM  

Being a teacher in Japan

Having had a basic bit of knowledge about Japan there were no major surprises when I got here. There were however, a number of minor eccentricities to be found in Japan that I wasn’t expecting at all. I am actually writing an article for the Hyogo Times (the local JET news letter) on this topic, which I will post once finished, but for know I will simply comment on some of the most recent events.

I was given the Friday off after Yashiro orientation so I could attend the PTA meeting at school on Saturday. All I was told was I would introduce myself to some of the parents and students. Saturday morning came and I couldn’t decide what to wear. I thought putting on a collared shirt would be appropriate, but it can be so blasted hot here. I finally decided to go with a polo shirt and slacks. They know how hot it is; it would look plenty formal. I arrived at school only to find all of my co-teachers in sportswear: tracksuits, shorts, t-shirts, and sports polos, and I was wearing slacks.

Thinking back I have no idea if I was told to wear sports wear, because the PTA meeting was put on my schedule three weeks prior. In any case, there was some reason that all of my co-teachers were dressed to go running at a PTA meeting. After a quick journalistic investigation I discovered the PTA meeting is an annual event in which different groups of parents with their children from around the neighborhoods square off in a huge tug-of-war tournament. There was no talk between teachers and parents about the coming school term. The teachers were only required to straighten the ropes and declare winners while sweating parents and children yelled and pulled for the pride of their neighborhood. There was a trophy for first place and prizes for places one to three.

I ended up giving my self-introduction speech, which was well-received, and then I simply watched and enjoyed the event while frantically fanning myself to keep cool in my dress slacks.

(Cultural side note: Everyone fans themselves here. Some people have expensive folding fans, but most people use the free fans given away on the street and near train stations with advertisements on the back. It sometimes strikes me as a little effeminate to furiously flick the wrist while fanning, but it is hot here and men and women both do it. When in Rome...)

Yesterday was the all-school work day. This time I was told in advance to wear sports clothes. I found out on Friday that I would be with the seventh grade teachers doing some digging. I didn’t know what to expect, but it turned out to be a serious morning of work. While we were working the teachers explained to me that Japanese teachers do more than just teach in the classroom. Except for the principal, no one has their own office. We all work in one large community office and whoever happens to be in the office answers the phone when it rings. The teachers really work as a team here and don’t have a problem having to do activities outside the range of academics.

Likewise, students go beyond just attending class. In some schools the students take turns in serving each other lunch. They also clean the school at the end of the day. All of these things not only eliminate unneeded cleaning staff at school but also teach about teamwork, etc.

So on this particular work day the seventh grade teachers and I were pulling up drainage grates and digging out all the mud, sand and silt that clogged them up over the past five years. I worked as hard as I could, and I’m a little sore today, but the teachers seemed impressed by my enthusiasm. After the digging we carried branches for a while, but finally finished before lunch time. In the teachers room we were rewarded with watermelon (it’s quite expensive here) and iced coffee. I have to say, there really is a sense of team work in such an activity that I have not experienced at any other job.

posted by Benjamin ベンジャミン @ 11:07 AM  

The Fins

On Thursday afternoon, after Yashiro, I went home, cleaned up the apartment, and in short order set out to go to Kobe to meet Maria and Hanna. Maria is a friend of mine from Finland whom I met in France at my YWAM school. She recently took up a job with Fin Air which gives her and a friend the exciting privilege of free travel. The two of them came to Japan with their mothers and had been staying at a relatives house who lived in-between Osaka and Kyoto.




I met Maria and Hanna at Sannomiya station (the hub of Kobe) and we mostly just walked around Kobe for a while. We walked through China town and went on to the harbor lands were there are a few interesting things to photograph. After a long day, which followed a long week, we went back to my apartment. They slept in my living room and I slept in the bedroom (without air-conditioning) so I didn’t get the full night of sleep I had been hoping for.

The next day, we took the train 30 minutes West to Himeji. Himeji is a city of about 500,000 with it’s most noticeable feature being Himeji Castle- the greatest castle in Japan and a Unesco world heritage site. I haven’t sat down and read the pamphlet I bought about the castle so I’m not sure about all the history at the moment. Most importantly: it is the biggest castle in Japan; it survived most of the W.W.II bombing and has been impeccably maintained for around 400 years; and it has been lived in my many of the most famous daimyo (feudal lords).




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History aside, it was an amazing structure to explore- inside and out. For all of those who plan to visit me, expect a trip to Himeji castle because you have to see it once, and I will be happy to see it again and again.

On the same block of land is a large Japanese garden. By the time we were finished with the castle we were short on time, but we had already paid the castle and garden ticket, so we went for a quick look. In our jog through the garden the highlight was definitely the ponds and the pictures of Koi below speak for themselves.



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posted by Benjamin ベンジャミン @ 11:06 AM  

Yashiro Prison: August 15-18

Last week over a hundred gaijin (foreigners) descended upon the sleepy town of Yashiro to participate in the yearly prefectural orientation for new JETs. Basically, all the new JETs from my area (many of whom are stir crazy from being placed in the country where there are no other foreigners for miles) were sent to the teachers prefectural training facility. There they were expected to attend various seminars on living in Hyogo-ken, team-teaching, and Japanese language. Many of these meetings covered the same things we heard at the Tokyo orientation, at our home city orientations, and amongst the thousands of JET web sites on the internet.

So after a long day of lectures, everyone (especially the stir crazy JETs) were looking forward to a free evening. Unfortunately in the small town of Yashiro, the nearby convenient store is the extent of entertainment options. So people hung out and played games while drinking beverages of a refreshing nature purchased at the aforementioned convenient store. Unsurprisingly, there are a certain amount of disturbances caused by JETs followed by complaints from local residents.

Perhaps to try to prevent such incidents or maybe just to instill a certain level of Japanese discipline, the Yashiro teachers facility maintains a strict curfew (hence the Yashiro prison nickname). The gates to the facility closed at 10 p.m. and “lights out” was supposed to be 11 p.m. This, coupled with a menu that was less than gourmet, meant it was impossible to avoid lots of complaining-JETs for four days. In truth, it really was a fun time. The stuff that was review wasn’t too bad and many of the other seminars were really quite helpful. Of course, the best part was re-meeting JETs from Tokyo and meeting a handful of new JETs as well.

posted by Benjamin ベンジャミン @ 11:00 AM  

My Japan pad

Some of these pictures are already dated, because I have purchased a few minor accessories to brighten up my place. I have made it a little less shabby, but I still have a problem with bare walls. I had assumed before coming I would have no problem finding interesting prints and posters of some of the obscure Japanese artists that I had heard about at home. It seems some of them are just as obscure in Japan as they are in the States, and I will have to keep my eyes open for their exhibits and for specialty shops just like I had to at home. Perhaps when my place is “done” I will take some updated photos. For now, enjoy those below.




























posted by Benjamin ベンジャミン @ 10:46 AM