"Yes, we Kan!"

Another English teacher at school told such a funny joke the other day that I feel obligated to share: What's the new Japanese Prime Minister's slogan? ......... "Yes, we Kan!"

While I've been blabbering on about differences and sports festivals, I've neglected to update you all on a very important happening in Japan! Though, if you follow current events you'll have already heard about it: Japan got a new Prime Minister and his name is Naoto KAN! (hahaha!) On my second day in Japan, Mr. Yukio Hatoyama was elected prime minister of Japan by a landslide. A very popular person; he seems very refined, sophisticated, and serious. Apparently, that was eventually his downfall...Now the new Prime Minister, Mr. KAN has taken office.

But I digress. First I shall tell you all about the climb that led to the fall. When Mr. Hatoyama was campaigning, he promised to remove the military base on the southern most island of Japan, Okinawa. This is obviously a strategically important position for the U.S. with China and North Korea close enough to launch tomatoes and missiles and whatever else. But the people in Okinawa feel that it's equally important for them to have their island and their independence back. Understandable, yes?

I'm grateful to be in Japan at this important time in foreign relations. I feel like it's a great opportunity to see this issue from both sides! Of course, I naturally feel an understanding about the U.S.'s need for ultimate power. That's what Americans do...not my cup of tea to be honest. I think (and perhaps the rest of the globe is with me) that America should stick it's big nose in it's own problems. And yet, I think the rest of the globe is a bit frightened for the peace. I know I am. Peace is so fragile and even though I don't support war or violence, especially when it's unecessary, it seems like a shakey time to remove military forces that for better or worse, help keep the peace.

And I can understand the feelings of Japanese. Can you? American military bases are not the most pleasant of neighbors, I'm sure. And the Japanese, in my estimation, are very polite, reposed, and thoughtful about the matter, but sick and tired of American influence in Japan. That is a huge generalization, by the way. There are many Japanese who strongly believe the base should stay where it is and want America's influence in politics, culture, and other areas. With each person you ask, you'll likely get a different answer.

So, poor Mr. Hatoyama was booted out of office and a new Mr. Kan took up his mantle. Since that time, Mr. Kan instigated a plan to move the base to a less-populated area of Okinawa. Mr. Kan's approval rating is also starting to fall like his predecessor's did. I think the public is jaded, and tired of leaders that disappoint them. They've had five prime ministers in the last four years and I imagine it's frustrating and detrimental to the interests of the public to have revolving door Prime Ministers.

No one knows what will happen in the next year, but it seems like an important issue internationally. It seems to me that one political leader's decision and tenacity will change the world, one way or another. Now Japan just has to choose which leader.

Honoring Our Differences

I've heard it said that we creatures are more alike than we are different. After traveling round the globe, I must say that I heartily agree. People, no matter where you go, are people. Different sizes, colors, and languages, but in the end all generally homogenous. We all have hopes, dreams, wants and needs. I find these similarities encouraging. When you think about our similarities rather than our differences, the world is an easy place to live in; full of sisters, brothers, and friends!

BUT small differences are everywhere you look! And it's the differences between our cultures that make interacting with each other so interesting! I don't really find differences to be all that significant most of the time. But it is fun to occassionally point them out. :D

There are a lot of differences that I could write about. For example, Americans are used to driving on the right side of the road, threading a needle, turning a key counter-clockwise to lock something, and reading from left to right. All of these practices are opposite in Japan! (Japanese drive on the left side of the road, hold their thread steady and maneuver their needle instead, keys turn counter-clockwise when locking, and Japanese is written from right to left, top to bottom.) And there are certainly more differences for me to discover in Japan, but the most obvious to me are the ones that relate to my job at a Japanese Junior High School.

Now, like I noted, Junior High students are the same world-wide as far as I can tell. They have generally the same interests, priorities, and behaviors. But the schools that they attend are not as identicle. For example, Japanese students belong to a particular homeroom. They stay in that classroom all day long and don't rotate classrooms (other than for P.E., music, and science). Instead, the teachers rotate from classroom to classroom.

Also, students don't have lockers. They keep ALL of their things in their classroom (crowded!).

And school lunches aren't gross. They're actually (usually) quite tasty! Though I do take issue when lunch includes iriko (the little bitty dried fish that still have their eyeballs. they occasionally get decapitated in my soup--hard to eat floating fish heads).

And musn't forget (but I often still do forget!), everyone has indoor and outdoor shoes. So the flip flop of sandals is heard all round inside our school. Probably about 90% of Japanese school students also have uniforms. Our students have a winter uniform and a summer uniform. Appearance is strictly regulated-all students must have black hair (even if your hair is not naturally black!), girls must tie their hair up and they aren't allowed make-up, and boys aren't allowed longer than average hair. Appearance is important in Japan and I think, especially in J.H., the Japanese value uniformity.

There is one "janitor" at my school (at my school of 600 students). I wouldn't really call her a janitor though...she does a lot of miscellaneous, necessary stuff, but everyday there is a cleaning period and the students clean the school (yucky j.h. bathrooms included!).

See? Wasn't that fun?! ;) We have plenty of differences! Japanese and American Junior High Schools are different in a lot of ways. It's interesting to think about all the differences. And I think it's important to recognize that we are different and unique. In the end, differences are great.

But what's truly remarkable is that we're all the same.

Sports Day

Ah, the good ol' days of Junior High. Can you remember? Being a j.h. teacher opens the floodgates to all of those precious and peculiar memories of adolescence and awkwardness. Being obsessed with makeup, hair, boys, boy bands, acne and all that. Usually all of this energy and worry is balled up in a classroom and it can get suffocating at times. But thankfully, tis the season of Sports Day. :) Sports Day is a single day full of track and field events. It's held at the school and it's an all-day affair. The actual event takes only one day, but the preparation for said day is unbelievable. Students prepare for weeks in advance practicing, exercising, organizing. It's truly a big event. I think some schools in America have something similar, though I don't know that it's as big of a deal as this is. My school in Japan recently hosted the annual event a few days ago. We practiced a BUNCH. In fact, the school year started about a month and a half ago...and so did sports day practices! Typically, in one week the students would practice about three times every day; in the morning before school, during one (or SIX depending on the day) of the class periods that was cancelled to accommodate practice, whenever they had P.E. class, and also after school. They worked SO HARD!! They practiced a lot of things during that time-dancing, acrobatics, stretching, aerobics, running, and special events. They even practiced marching...in complete unison...in perfect lines...for hours. To me, it's an excellent example of the Japanese way of life. Be the same as everyone else. Diligence is highly regarded here. The students and teachers work really hard to make the day a success. It's always scheduled for a weekend so nearly all the students' parents can come to watch. But that also means that all the teachers at school should come to school on Saturday and Sunday. I honestly wasn't looking forward to that part beforehand...but it was so incredibly fun! I kept forgetting it was the weekend-everyone was way to busy enjoying the day to worry too much about giving up their days off. I won't deny that sometimes when we practiced marching and nothing but for hours on end, I thought the end result couldn't possibly be worth it. But it was. It was SO fun. And it was a great opportunity to mix with the kids. Usually, classroom etiquette and professionalism serve as necessary but formidable blockades between students and teachers. Also, junior high is a rough time in life! There's so much to obsess over and worry about. But this day was a great way to build a cooperative spirit between everyone at school and to give the students a chance to be silly kids. I was wrong, like so many previous instances during my stay in Japan. Sports Day was great and I can't wait to start marching practice again next year. :)

Tid Bits from School

There are no noticeable eating disorders at my school. Not even the skinniest or most rebellious students have an eating disorder. I think that was a problem at my school when I was in Junior High, so I've noticed its absence. I don't why that is exactly, but there must be something great about the way things are done here. I think it's permissable to be extremely thin: many of the students are skinny. In fact, most are skinny. In fact, the Japanese have a very strict body image (average-sized Americans are obese in Japan), yet I haven't seen or heard of eating disorders. Everyone is required to eat all of their huge school lunch, so maybe that has something to do with it.

At school, I normally help serve school lunch and I've learned something kind of strange from that experience. There are different washcloths for everything! For kitchen surfaces, for dining tables, for washing dishes, for drying dishes, for drying lunch trays, for wiping of the lunch cart, and for wiping the floor. They're all different and if you confuse one with the other, you can be sure that someone will take notice. :)

There aren't any substitutes at Japanese schools! In a way, I'm sure it's a cost-cutting measure, and pretty effective. On the other hand, it's just crazy! This week there were teachers gone for seminars, teachers at a student track event, students anywhere but school. So the other teachers just taught all day and combined classes and it is just madness. I want to teach in America someday, but this may be one experience I decide not to share with my administration. ;)

I recently watched a report from CNN (thank you, Pater) about teachers in Japan. It made me think of the conception I had of Japanese teachers before I came and how it changed afterward. I think the role of a teacher is different in America and Japan. Teaching is really demanding in both countries, but possibly more so in Japan. There are just enough teachers in a school, no extra, so everyone is busy all the time. Also, teachers are in charge of clubs, teams, student organizations, there are teacher meetings ALL THE TIME, and generally the class sizes are bigger (lots of grading!) But it is just the expectation of Japanese people that teachers should be fully committed to their work. I think it has its positive and negative points. Anyway, I love being called Shelby sensei all the time. It makes me feel like I'm a teacher from karate kid.

Some student stories: A funny one first. I work at a Junior High School, so as you might assume, it can be a challenge for students to keep their eyelids open, especially in the mornings. (I know the feeling! It's really embarassing to doze when you're a teacher!!) First period starts at 8:55 and the other day I was walking along with two other teachers. On our way, we walked by an empty classroom...only it wasn't empty. There was one student asleep at their desk. I pointed them out and the other teacher started laughing. Everyone else had gone to P.E. and left their classmate to nap.

Another funny memory: I asked one of my students at the end of class, "Did you understand?" She looked at me, stuttered a bit and paused... then bent her knees and stood half way up.

Another story is about one of my favorite students. It's hard to have a fave, but he ranks near the top. He's ALWAYS smiling. That is, when he's not sleeping. I think he has a hard time learning, so rather than struggle along, he gets his beauty sleep. :) Anyway, if someone helps him he's always willing to give it a go. So during class I knelt by his desk. The students were translating English to Japanese, and since my Japanese is terrible we were in the same boat! We worked together though, and in ten minutes we had 5 or 6 sentences translated! I felt good about it, and I think he did too. When I stood up at the bell, he looked at me and said "Thank you." Not arigatou, but thank you. It made me glow. I think he learned something, but if nothing else, it was fun for both of us.

Familiar Faces

This past week, a small miracle happened: Mom and Chelsea visited me in Japan. I had the most astounding week! It turns out that I'm quite a bad tour guide, but my Japanese friends happen to know a lot about getting around in Japan and they were so very generous and we consequently had quite a fine week! (Of course, I think I could have just stared at them all day every day and really had a marvelous time.) Our week started a bit awkwardly when Chelsea wasn't able to board the long flight to Japan. It was a very complicated situation but to make a long story short, she couldn't board the flight and Mom could. So Mom went ahead and Chelsea was stuck in the L.A. airport (which consequently is an AWFUL airport) for the night until the ticket offices opened up about 10 hours later. Eventually, Mom made it safe and sound (though with pretty puffy eyes) and about 8 hours after that, Chelsea arrived as well! It could have been pretty messy, but thanks to some really nice people and Mom and Chelsea's endurance, everybody made it to Japan! On Sunday, we had big fun in the Aso mountain range! My host family volunteered to take us and we enjoyed a lot of things. First, we went to the actual caldera of an active volcano. The Aso mountains were all at one point volcanoes, which makes sense. But one of them is still active and available for tourists to peek at. The day we went happened to be a particularly active day and we were smothered in toxious fumes so we didn't stay too long. But it was fun to be close and "see" the volcano! :) Next, we had lunch at a very popular restaurant with a rocking Japanese garden in the back. It was Mom and Chelsea's first Japanese restaurant experience so I think it was interesting for them! After lunch, we went to Aso shrine. It's a huge wooden establishment and it just feels ancient and sacred-I like it! We found out how lucky we were and bought some interesting snacks as well.

On Monday, we went to Kumamoto Castle. We trooped about and saw what there was to see and enjoyed the sakura in full bloom. It was memorable. Then, that evening, we went to a dinner at a friend's house. They had obviously been cooking all day by the amount of food that was prepared when we got there! And we got to help make some soba noodles for dinner. :) My soba noodles looked like udon (way too thick!), but Mom and Chelsea made some delicious ones! Some more friends came over and we enjoyed a fiest! It was fun to talk with all of them. After we had eaten all that we possibly could, we enjoyed some harmonica music and hula dancing (the guests present at dinner were quite talented!), and finally, we got to write some Japanese calligraphy! "Shyodou" we learned, is much harder than it looks! But we practiced our very best, and Mom and Chelsea got to take home handmade plaques to display their own Shyodou. I'm just starting to learn how to write and recognize these characters, so it was really interesting for me. Mom was a little intimidated at first, I think, but her kanji looks great now! And Chelsea's kanji, predictably, were amazing. It was a fun day and a special evening. I think we three enjoyed it very much!

On Tuesday evening, we had a special adult English class. Every week I taught this class, but this week was the last class of the "term". To celebrate Mom and Chelsea's visit, we decided to have a potluck! Everyone brought delicious goodies and we all enjoyed speaking in English! This group of people has really quite outstanding English and they're very easy-going, fun people. It was such a great time!

The next day we took the train bound for Nagasaki. The train ride was quite incredible-mountains on one side, the ocean on the other. It was an adventure in itself! When we reached our destination, the town where we THOUGHT the ferry left from, we discovered that we couldn't buy a ferry ticket in that town! We did have a nice picnic lunch there instead and climbed to the top of a random pyramid dance club (see video). It was an unexpected change of events, but once we were there, I thought it was really pretty awesome to be with my Mom and Chelsea. It didn't really matter that our plans had been rearranged-I had a marvelous time just being with them. We eventually took the train back the way we had come and reached Kumamoto city in time for it to start raining! Our prefered course of action was to stay out of the rain, so we headed for Shimotori, a long, covered expanse of shops! We found some souveniers and when we'd had enough, we headed back for Ozu.

On Thursday, we hung out around my apartment and stared at each other! Mom and I thought it was great and Chelsea got a little stir-crazy (understandably), so she and I took off and went to a cute little stationary shop and a couple of grocery stores. Chelsea knows more about Japanese food than I do, so I learned quite a lot on our little adventure. When the evening came, it was time to go hang out at a restaurant downtown with some friends. One friend is the owner of the restaurant, so she was able to obtain some vegan food for Chelsea (and PLENTY of food for the rest of us!) We were absolutely stuffed when all was said and done. We had a lot of laughs and really enjoyed each others company.

The next day, with A LOT of help and guidance from Japanese friends, we finally made it to Nagasaki. Who knew that taking the bus would be so complicated!! After we made it, we visited several atomic bomb memorials. It was a very sad day, but we were glad we went. First, we visited the city's Peace Park. It was constructed around the remains of a prison which was the closest building to the hypocenter of the bombs explosion. All of the people in the prison died and the building was completely destroyed. All that remained were the foundations which still remain in the Peace Park today. Also in the Peace Park were statues from many different countries. There were lovely flowers, and thousands of gorgeous paper cranes folded by students and other visitors hoping for world peace. Next, we saw the site where the a-bomb was dropped. And by the site was the city's bomb museum. We thought it was very sad! It was also very graphic. There were lots of artifacts found in the remains of the bombing such as bloody clothes and a helmet with the remains of a human skull still attached. There were lots of pictures too. The whole thing was rather shocking and uncomfortable. Which is a good thing. We were glad we went, I think, but it was all in all a sad day.

And the next and final day was no less sad! For me anyway! Because that was the day that Mom and Chelsea left Japan. :'( But they came. And that will be what I choose to remember about that week. :D We had a marvelous time, and even more than that, I remembered what it was like to spend time with some people I know and love. I hope they will be able to come to Japan again! And I hope that YOU will too!

Graduation

I'm sorry-I have determined I'm not the type of person whose very good at writing blogs. I don't say that as an excuse, it's just true. I'd like to write lots of things, but nothing that anyone wants to read about! And the things you might like to read about, I find that I don't really care to write about. Oh, irony. Of course, I should do a better job of writing more often. I really like to share my experience. I'll keep trying to do a better job and write more often. ;) Well, a lot of monumental things have been taking place here in Japan. First, Ozu Junior High School had a graduation in March. It was very sad! I have only known those students for 6 months, but it seems much longer than that! I may never see many of them again and I had trouble saying goodbye to be perfectly honest! Also, in Japan the buisiness and school year start in April. Every year around this time, teachers are assigned to their next schools. Sometimes teachers stay in the same school and sometimes they don't. Teachers can stay in the same school for up to about 7 or 8 years and they are assigned a school rather than choosing when or where to. The whole system was new to me as it's a lot different than the American system. So we not only had to say goodbye to our students, but about ten teachers as well! It was a hard month to say the least! But, in a couple of days the new school year will start and I have a feeling that school will be as bright and beautiful as it was before even if it is a little different. I took some pictures and videos of graduation. The ceremony was similar to an American graduation in someways, but oh so different in others! :) Hope you enjoy!

Wait...Check That.

Sorry, but a necessary addition to the last post: people in Japan are even more incredibly thoughtful than could previously ever be imagined. My birthday was February 9th. Today is February 26th. Two friends just went with me to a fancy restaurant, bought me the most AMAZING birthday cake! (hopefully photo to come!), and gave me a birthday present. A very thoughtful one at that-a friendship necklace! It is one of a set of four and each person in our group has one. :D They're lovely as well-made out of a real "hanna bira" (flower petal). (hopefully another photo to come!)

No new information; rather just confirmation that the people here really are quite outstanding. :D