Sickness and Kindness

Do you recognize the term "shingata influenza"? Possibly not, but I bet you can guess what it means. Pig flu/swine flu/H1N1/...shigata influenza. I've got it.

I feel really okay. My fever broke today and I'm feeling a lot better than yesterday.

But I have something even more amazing to write about-the kind people of Japan. I think being ill in a foreign country, where you don't know anyone, where you can't even go to the hospital by yourself because of that language barrier, would be pretty miserable and discouraging. Yet, as usual, the Japanese have prooved to be amazingly kind and generous!

I had 102 degree fever yesterday, so I called my supervisor at school. She was in the hospital! She also has the flu, but she said that she would call her sister and her sister would come pick me up and take me to the hospital. She totally didn't need to do that!

Today I didn't go to school. I was also supposed to teach an adult English conversation class, but couldn't go. :( But instead of being resentful or such an emotion, a student from class and his wife brought me a bag full of food! A friend and student from class brought me bags of food and an ice pillow and forehead coolers for fever. And the woman who took me to the hospital last night brought me a handburger and a sports drink and apple juice. And a teacher from school brought me a huge bag full of food, a lovely note, and school lunch leftovers. :) I took pictures of all of these gifts. I hope you enjoy them as much do!

Warm the Heart and the Limbs Will Follow

I have a heart-warming story that also happens to be a body-warming story as well!

It sounds like you people in Nebraska and similar longitudinal places are having a cold fall season. Snow! I bet you are very “samui”! (“hotsui” means hot and “samui” means____) ; ) Even though we’ve not had snow here, it feels pretty stinking cold. And there are two primary reasons: #1-I didn’t pack any warm clothes (we intended to ship them instead…but it turns out that s&h to Japan is a bit more pricey than expected!) and I haven’t purchased many yet. It’s a work in progress as things that fit well are a titch bit difficult to find here. And #2-heating is a luxury here. A semi-necessary luxury, yes, but a luxury still. And no one leaves a heater running when they’re not in the room, as this is wasteful (aren’t Japanese people smart?!). But in conclusion, no need to feel any sympathy for me: I was fully equipped to face the bitter winter and now I am even more so…on with the main thread of the story.

In Japan, people change winter clothes on October first. There’s actually a sort of nation-wide closet swap. Henceforth, if you wear short sleeves on October second, people will ask you wherever you go, “Aren’t you cold?” Maybe you are and maybe you aren’t, but if you wear short sleeves, you should be prepared to receive this question a lot!

Before I went shopping here for winter clothes, I did wear quite a few short sleeves. Therefore I answered the question above A LOT! And I usually told them, “My clothes were being shipped from America. I don’t have any warm clothes now, but I’m going to go shopping soon.” I thought this was an honest, straight-forward answer but…

A few days ago, my friend at the local Board of Education Office called me at school and said that my supervisor at the Board of Education had a kutatsu blanket for me. (A kutatsu is essentially a table that you can plug into the wall. Then you sit with your legs under and enjoy the wonderful warmth. Colin left me one to enjoy, but I needed a blanket yet. She asked me when he could deliver the kutatsu blanket and I said later that day would be fine. I met my supervisor at my apartment, but when I opened the door I found not one man with one blanket, I found two men up to their chins in blankets! They were absolutely laden with huge bulky packages! And then they asked if I knew how to work my air conditioner/heater and before leaving they gave it a thorough inspection. Neither men speak very much English (and I speak way less Japanese!) so I’m not sure exactly who the blankets were from or where they came from or even whether they’re for my futon (bed) or for the kutatsu or both…

But oh my goodness! This just seems like such a Japanese/incredibly kind and generous thing to do!! I suspect that I told so many people (a few of which work in the Board of Education office or at school) that I didn’t have winter clothes that it eventually got round to my supervisor and he bought a massive amount of blankets and sheets to ensure that this silly American wouldn’t turn into an ice cube. I took a picture of all of the blankets and as soon as I can put the picture up, I will. I think you’ll agree that the sight is quite incredible!

So now my heart is warm and my body is too. : )

Hajimete!

Hello, all! I am awfully unsuccessful with regular blog posts, don’t you agree? Sometimes I write everyday and other times (most of the time) I don’t write for two weeks then give you more news than anyone would ever want to read! By the way, there is a “follower” feature on this webpage, and I think that if you sign up to be a follower, you will get email notifications when I post something…I think. If you’re interested, check it out and let me know! If you are not interested in being a follower…I’ll try not to cry.

It’s been sometime, so I think it’s necessary to have a catch-up post. I’ve done a lot of stuff and I want to tell you all about it!

Since I wrote last, I’ve been to another birthday party (for an ALT), gone to several more band rehearsals (we’re performing on November 8th at the “Karaimo” festival/sweet potato festival), and today I observed for an hour at Ozu High School. It was really interesting to visit another school and see what things are like. Not shockingly different than Junior High, but very interesting. There’s also an ALT that works there and it was fun to see the way she interacted with students.

Japan is an amazing place. I can do and see things that are normal for Japanese, but they’re a first for me! I have new experiences everyday. I suppose that should be the way to live no matter what country I live in-I should always discover and explore and experience new things…but it’s just very easy to do in Japan. ; )

Some of the first(s)-hajimete, I’ve experienced: I’ve worn my first kimono (at an ancient Japanese palace no less), taught my first (and second) Eikaiwa (Adult English Conversation class), attended my first Junior High English recitation contest (my school did not win the big prize, but I was so proud of them anyway!! They did a really great job and I think they learned a lot in the process), and experienced my first harvest festival celebration. Another teacher at my school invited me to her family’s celebration-we had a ton of food (have you noticed a trend in how much I eat when I visit other people?), talked and laughed and I got to hold the cutest baby in Japan. He is a roley-poley if ever I’ve seen one and he was very easy to hold. : ) Also, I’ve eaten some firsts-basashi (raw horse meat), octopus, fried frog legs (they were supposed to taste just like chicken…I think they taste more like frogs), crab innards (they were green and slightly gritty), and probably even more that I just can’t remember. I think I would have turned up my nose at these things in America, or at least had second thoughts before eating them. Well, I was a little hesitant about the crab innards, but everything else was oishi! (delicious!)

And, in the near future I’ll hopefully have some more firsts! Saturday, as you all know, is Halloween! What is Halloween like in Japan, you ask? Soon we shall all know. On Sunday I’m going to a culture festival in the city. What does a culture festival entail? I have no idea. But there is beauty in the unknown, right? And Japan is a very beautiful place.

Fun Times In and Around Ozu Machi

I suppose I should be writing about my weekend…because it’s been a good one!

This is at least a three day weekend! I say at least because I was supposed to take a day off on Tuesday as well, but I don’t think I’m going to now due to my own lack of planning. :( As an ALT, I’m only required to work 20 days each month, and there are 21 days in this month, so I can take a day off, and Tuesday and Wednesday of this week would be good days to take off because there are no classes these days and I wouldn’t be missing anything. Anyway, I elaborate only to explain to you how cushy my job is. ;)

So this weekend has been really awesome so far! I went to my last welcome Enkai party. It was with my fellow teachers, and it was a lot of fun!! It was at a restaurant and we had lots of good food and alcohol. ;) It was nice to finally get the chance to talk with my teachers in such an informal atmosphere. I talked with the principal, which I especially enjoyed because I think he’s a very interesting person, but I don’t get the chance to talk to him at school at all. So all in all, it was an awesome party and a fun evening full of talking and laughter and stories and smiles. :D

Yesterday, Saturday, my wonderful friend Sabrina called me!! It was incredible. So incredible, in fact, that I wrote and entirely separate blog entry about it! ;) I also went to the house of my host-family (again! They’re so nice to invite me over!). This visit was really special because we had a band rehearsal!! I got to rehearse with their band! And I think you’ll enjoy our song selection: Blowin in the Wind-Bob Dylan, Country Roads-John Denver, You’ve Got a Friend and Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow-Carolyn King, and This Land Is Your Land-PP&M. Great, no?! They’re really great musicians so I had a lot of fun being a part of it all. And then we had a delicious dinner. That was good too. :D

Tonight, I went to “Tom’s” host family’s house (again! They’re way nice also!!) to celebrate a birthday in their family! It was a lot of fun and now I am sooo full! I’ve eaten well this weekend! ;) This family is always such fun to talk with and they’re so nice, so it was a nice evening with friends.

Tomorrow will also be a fun day! I’m going to the Aso mountains with a friend that I met at my Japanese class. He’s Japanese, but lived in America (Chicago) for five years to go to school so he has very good English. So nice!! I think it will be a fun day.

And maybe Tuesday I will go to school and that’ll be fun too!! :D I really like school, so vacations are nice and all, but for me, not really necessary. ;)

Give Me a Call!

My dear friend, Sabrina, called me in Japan and kindly pointed out that it is possible for people elsewhere on the planet to call me from Skype! So if you’re interested, please read the info below.

So, firstly, my number in Japan is 096-294-8561. You can call me on Skype and apparently is not too awfully expensive, though I don’t know the cost for sure. I think the time difference is 14 hours from MST. So if you call me at 6:00PM, it will be 8:00AM here…I think. Call me and we’ll find out!

The one bad thing is that I don’t have voice mail or any sort of messaging system. I guess I couldn’t call you back even if you did leave a message! But if you’re thinking of calling, the safest time to do so is Saturday and Sunday mornings. I’m usually at my apartment then. Of course, if you feel like chatting at six in the morning, I’ll be home from work on most weekdays by 5:00. Also, if you want to email me and tell me you’re going to call, I’ll either make sure that I’m by my telephone or email you back to organize another time.

So, it’s not exactly simple, but if you’d like to talk, I’d love to talk to you! ;)

My Booklist

I don’t think that this has much to do with Japan, but I have been reading a LOT, so I felt like telling you all about what I’ve read. : )

I was in the middle of a book when I came, but I finished it while I was here, so I will include it. Nicolai Gogol’s stories including The Nose, The Overcoat, The Carriage, Taras Bulba, and more that I can’t recall at the moment. It was simultaneously sad and happy; depressing and uplifting; silly and profound. A lot of fun to read! It was a commitment to read it, but one that I’m very glad I made. ;)

Next, I read Natsume Soseki’s Botchan. It’s a Japanese classic about a young man’s experience teaching at a rural Japanese middle school. Once I found out the synopsis I thought, “What?! That’s me!!” It turned out to not be me after all : ), but it was hilarious in parts and funny throughout. I really enjoyed the subtle ironies hidden between the lines. It was a great book for a person who is new to Japanese culture, and good entertainment at that!

And last, I just finished The Reader by Bernhard Schlink. I haven’t seen the movies, but I can’t imagine that it’s as good as the book. And if it is, then it’s a really good movie! I really got sucked into this book. I didn’t know what it was about before I started, so I was almost repelled by the storyline, but I kept reading and found that it was so real and true, neither happy or sad but very honest. It has a philosophical tone that I occasionally got bored with, but in the end I really liked it a lot. There was one quote that seems negative, but in the context is really positive. I think it reminds my of my situation trying to learn Japanese. Here it is:

“I knew about the helplessness in everyday activities, finding one’s way or finding an address or choosing a meal in a restaurant, about how illiterates anxiously stick to prescribed patterns and familiar routines, about how much energy it takes to conceal one’s inability to read and write, energy lost to actual living. Illiteracy is dependence. By finding the courage to learn to read and write, Hanna had advanced from dependence to independence, a step towards liberation.”

I have found that it’s easy for me to get dogged down by my Japanese illiteracy, so this explanation of my own feelings was quite refreshing! “Someone understands how I feel! And they explained it ever so well!”

Anyway, the next on my to-read list are two compilations of Lefcadio Hearn stories. One book is a collection of Japanese people’s ghost stories that Hearn dictated, and the others are Hearn originals. Lefcadio Hearn was from…Poland?…I forget, but then he eventually visited Japan. Instead of visiting though, he liked it so much that he stayed! He was married to a Japanese woman, had 4 children (I think), and lived in a very traditional Japanese house in the very nearby Kumamoto City. They have spooky readings of his stories at his house now. Wouldn’t that be fun?!

And that’s all I know of literary excellence. Feast, my friends, on words!

We’re surrounded!!

In case you weren’t aware, Japan happens to be an island. In the ocean. Before coming to this bit of land in the big blue, I didn’t realize what all that would entail. Now I know and I will tell you.

Japan is consequently also in the midst of wind currents that dramatically influence the nature that thrives in different areas and of course the daily weather for people (that thrive everywhere). The weather here is surprisingly (at least to me) sporadic. I thought I would be living in a tropical weather area, with plenty of heat to keep me warm. And when I arrived, my assumptions were confirmed; it was hot and humid, oh boy.

Then I experienced truly luxurious, perfect days at just the right temperature and with a glimmer of light breeze…it was enough to make me utter a contented sigh every time I stepped outside.

And now it is cold! Can you believe it?! It’s quite frigid enough to make a person want to actually wear long sleeves when they go outside!! Unheard of. ;)

And apparently a typhoon was headed our way. There certainly was an awful lot of wind at one point during the day, but wind, where I’m from, is not unheard of. So I didn’t think much of it. Before I knew it, the typhoon had apparently already done the damage it was going to do and moved on. I slept through my first earthquake and ignored my first typhoon. It seems my powers of observation are not so powerful.

Not only is the weather a sign of the surrounding oceanic currents, but I’m also reminded we’re on our own little island when I walk on water everyday on my way to school! : ) The Japanese have developed the finest waterways I have ever seen. And from the stories I’ve heard about the rainy season here, the waterways are absolutely necessary! Water passes through many of the sidewalks and roads I walk on and I can hear water moving constantly under the waterways’ concrete lids. The water is pushed along in any given direction at a precise speed and volume, and there’s rarely water gathering anywhere. Except in the rice paddies! I suppose it makes sense that all of the copious amounts of rain we get have to go somewhere. I just didn’t know how present in and conscious waterways were in the architecture of this island.

So there you have it. You were hoping to learn a lot about Japan while reading this, but now all you know is that Japan is an island. ;)